Loki and the Unlucky Grim Reaper
by RayanaBean
Summary: Leena is horrible at her job. She is also horrible at finding things, cooking, and generally having any form of good luck. When her job brings her face to face with Loki, her horrible streak of luck strikes and she becomes stuck with Loki far from home. Oh, and did I mention she's a grim reaper?
1. Chapter 1- The Unlucky Girl

AN: I hope you enjoy this chapter, chapter 2 is almost done and will be up in a few days. :)

* * *

"You had one job," Darius grit out between clenched teeth. "One job, and you failed it." He paced back and forth in the cramped office, shedding clumps of rainbow confetti with every furious stomp.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think it would-"

"Exactly! You didn't think." Spittle flew from his mouth as he interrupted me. I stared with mild disgust at the gob of spit that landed on my shoulder. "You never think about the consequences to your actions. You just do things, and expect your higher-ups to clean up your mess. Well, not this time, little missy." The familiar vein throbbed on his forehead, his watery pale eyes twitched erratically, and his bald head was beet red. If Darius wasn't immortal, I'd be worried about him keeling over from a heart attack. "This time, I won't clean up your mess. No. No, no, no." Each 'no' was emphasized with an angry stomp of his stubby leg. He glared up at me from his inferior height, the cords of his thick neck stood out and his broad chest heaved from rage."This is the last assignment you'll ever screw up, oh yes, I can assure you of that. You'll be stripped of your powers!" He resumed his frantic pacing around the room, and I seized this pause in his rant as an opportunity to speak uninterrupted.

"Now sir, with all due respect, I would hardly count this as a failure. And besides, this would only be the thirteenth time I've failed an assignment. That's an average amount for an Apprentice Grim Reaper." I pointed out. "In fact, Administrator Ida failed twenty-seven assignments during her apprenticeship, and look at her now! She's the head of the Animal Deaths Department. Couldn't you find it in your heart to give me another chance?" I followed his bobbing, bald head with pleading eyes. "I learn from all of my mistakes, and from this one I've learnt to never allow a mortal soul into the In-Between. It won't happen again, I vow this."

Darius snorted, and jabbed a yellowed finger towards me. "From all the mistakes you've made, you should be a genius by now." He shook his head. "And, unlike you, Ida actually managed to complete a few assignments in between her failings." He paused his pacing around the small room, and heaved a mighty sigh. "Every assignment, every soul you're assigned to escort to the afterlife, you manage to screw it all up. How? How is that even possible? Eventually, common sense should kick in and warn you of bad ideas." His anger seemed to be dissipating, leaving only deep rooted disappointment. He perched at the edge of the desk occupying most of the room, and waited for an answer.

I shifted from foot to foot, and wiped my clammy hands on my pants. "Well," I began, and then stopped. Any explanation I could think of only sounded like an excuse, even to my ears. Instead, I studied my boots and avoided making eye contact with him. Maybe if I was quiet enough, and lucky enough, he'd cut this appointment short. Of course, seeing as luck had never been on my side, this situation was no different.

Silence stretched on, only punctuated by his heavy breathing and the muffled _tick_, _tick_, _tick_ of my pocket watch. "I don't know why you were even accepted on as an Apprentice Grim Reaper." He finally spoke, now sounding more disgusted than disappointed. "You have absolutely no talents, no use, no brains!" He shouted. I bit my cheek, holding back a retort. I had studied harder than any other applicant to pass the apprentice Grim Reaper exam. Strangely, the exam had very little to do with actually being a Grim Reaper and seemed to only focus on the history of the In-Between, the home of the Grim Reapers. Regardless, I had earned my way into this apprenticeship, and Darius had no right to insult my intelligence. The rest of his rant, however, I found myself unable to argue with. He was right, I was a terrible apprentice.

As he continued to bluster about my uselessness and general stupidity, I couldn't keep my mind from drifting back to the accident that landed me in Administrator Darius Kern's gloomy, small, and rather musty smelling office.

* * *

Every living being, whether they are a human, an animal, an Asgardian, or a giant, has a soul. While most souls find their way to The Realm of the Dead on their own after death, occasionally a soul will become lost. Or, much too commonly, if a being had died violently or has unfinished business the soul will become trapped in The Realm of the Living. As an Apprentice Grim Reaper, it's my duty to guide lost souls and to bring disturbed souls peace. This may seem easy-peasy, completely straight cut, and a bag of daisies, but it's not. The lost souls are harder to find than Waldo in those books humans are so fond of. Their unfinished business can be as impossible to complete as one of Odin's riddles. Which brings me to my latest impossible assignment that ended in disaster.

Heidi Eisenberg was a young soul, and at nearly the same age as me she was the youngest I'd ever been assigned. The young girl was also the root of my current problems.

I first found Heidi near the resting place of her bones, in a small cemetery just inside of Stuttgart, Germany. Among the pale marble angels scattered throughout the graveyard, her small, wispy form was nearly impossible to locate. She was also very easy to mistake for a patch of fog, as I discovered after accidentally walking through her.

"Hey, that tickles." A quiet voice rang out in German through the silent evening. I spun around, searching for the source of the voice. All I could see was a small area of fog, hovering in the middle of the path I had just passed through. While fog during a fall evening like this was common on Earth, having only a small, isolated patch of fog far away from any body of water was not.

"Hello?" I called back in German, my mind taking auto-pilot. I took a tentative step toward the mist. "Is anyone here?"

"Oh! Yes, I'm here." The whispery voice spoke again. Mortals cannot see, or hear a Grim Reaper until the moments immediately before their death, and afterwards, when only their soul remains. Of course, if a Grim Reaper is stripped of their powers they would be equal to a mortal, and could be seen then too. I still felt Grim Reaper-y, so whoever replied to me had to be dying or dead.

"Who are you? Do you have a name?" My eyes scanned the graveyard, searching for the speaker.

"My name is Heidi. Heidi Eisenberg." I turned back to face the mist, and was surprised to see it had managed to form a relatively humanoid shape. The longer I watched, the more defined she became until a sightly transparent, but very clear, woman stood before me. I didn't know souls could do that.

The small woman had her light coloured hair pulled into two plaits, and thick glasses hid her eyes. All in all, she was a rather unspectacular human. "Well, Heidi, I'm very glad I found you. I was looking for you. I'm here to help you to... you know, move on." I tried to phrase this as carefully as possible, unsure if she was aware of her demise.

"Oh, good. I was worried this was all there was after death," She waved a see-through hand towards the empty graveyard. "just floating around and being ignored by the living. Not that this isn't fun, I was just hoping there was more."

I let out a breath of relief, it was incredibly difficult to explain to a soul that they were dead. First there was the shock, the fear, the rage, often punctuated by a burst of destructive poltergeist activity, and finally, the sadness. The sadness and misery were the hardest to deal with.

"There's much more than just this," I flashed a reassuring smile. "And as soon as we find out what your unfinished business is, you can move on to it. Now, did you have a chance to say goodbye to your loved ones? Did you have a message to pass on? Some place you always wanted to visit?" Each suggestion was rebuffed with a small shake of her head.

"No. I died in an auto crash along with my family. I have no one to say goodbye to."

"Not even a friend?" I prompted.

"No one." Was her firm reply. "I have no messages to pass on, and I never wanted to travel."

I pressed my lips together and tried again. "Were you in the middle of a project? Maybe reading a book?" One Asgardian soul I was assigned to refused to move on until he found out how a certain book ended, so this wasn't an overly preposterous suggestion.

Silence followed as she thought this over. "I was on my way to my highschool when I died. I was going to give a presentation that day. I worked so hard on it, I still have it memorized. I was so nervous about speaking in front of my class, I wanted to prove to them that...that I'm not just the meek girl who always sat in the back of the class. I wanted to show I wasn't just some wallflower, too timid to speak. I wanted to prove myself to..." Heidi trailed off and gave a nervous chuckle "It's pretty stupid, once I think about it."

"No, no, that's not stupid. I understand." And I did. I could understand her need to prove herself to be more than just a person's negative assumption. I could understand, because I was the same way. I wanted to prove myself to be more than just a screw up and an accident magnet. While I never managed to succeed in this, I wanted to make sure she could.

But now the problem arose. All of her schoolmates would be long out of school, and well into being middle-aged. They were probably scattered half-way across the planet, which ruled out her being able to give her presentation directly to all of them. But maybe, maybe it didn't have to be _them_ directly. Maybe a random group of people would work just the same. Now the second problem arose. The group of people had to be able to see and hear Heidi. It would be impossible to round up a giant group of psychics, and finding a large crowd of unrested souls seemed impractical. This left the only other beings with the ability to see souls; Grimm's, the occupants of the In-Between and the only beings who could become Grim Reapers.

And so, I did the stupid thing that landed me in Administer Darius Kern's Office. I took Heidi back with me to the In-Between.

Everything went fine at first. I decided to let Heidi give her speech in the food hall of the Grim Reaper's headquarters. After a nasty outbreak of food poisoning from the food served here, it was rarely used and conveniently out of the way. I even managed to round up about twenty other Grimm's to listen to the most boring presentation of our existence. This wasn't Heidi's fault, she tried to make it interesting but the subject was mind numbing. Regardless, we all tried our hardest to stay awake, and prepared to cheer as loudly as possible when she was done. I clutched two handfuls of confetti, ready to throw them into the air when she finished as a grand finale of sorts.

Unfortunately, in the middle of Heidi's presentation on tooth brushes, Darius wandered into the lunch room. He took one look at Heidi, spluttered, and dragged me off to his office without another word. Along the way, I managed to trip and spill a fistful of colourful confetti onto his crisp, black uniform. Needless to say, this did nothing to improve his foul mood.

* * *

"...too lazy to read the guide book!" Darius' nasally voice snapped me from my memories.

"Guide book?" I asked, regretting not paying attention, if only for the missed chance to hear a possibly interesting insult.

"The Grim Reaper's Extraordinary Guidbook to Reaping and Grimming, of course. What did you think I was talking about? You received it after passing the entrance exam, as did every other apprentice. Unlike them, you didn't even bother to-"

"No, I didn't." I cut him off, too thoroughly confused to care about manners. "I didn't get a book."

"Of course you did, everyone did." He flapped his hand in the air, as if to shoo away my argument

"Well, I didn't. I had to leave early after completing the exam, maybe that's why I didn't get a book. My mother was ill at the time, I had to return home to take care of her. I was actually going to skip the exam entirely, but Mother convinced me not to."

"Oh." Darius said quietly. "Oh dear." He rubbed his forehead nervously and shifted uncomfortably on his desk. His anger had evaporated, leaving only a red face in its wake. I kept my eyes locked on his face, waiting for an explanation and hopefully one of those extraordinary books. They sounded interesting, and pretty damn imperative to being an Apprentice Grim Reaper. He cleared his throat and explained. "The Guidbook has all of the rules of being a Grim Reaper, and the proper protocols to follow in certain situations. The beginning exam only tests the applicants memory and cognitive skills. The real testing begins during the apprenticeship. If they prove themselves to be unable to follow the guidebook, they will have their powers taken away and their apprenticeship rejected."

This didn't sound good. The only predictable things about Darius were his anger issues and his stubbornness, so it was impossible to know where he was taking this. The pit in my stomach warned me that this wasn't going to end well and it seemed my streak of bad luck had struck again. "But...since I didn't get a book, I wasn't technically breaking any rules." I tried to reason, hoping Darius' infamous temper wouldn't flare up.

He ignored me, deep in thought with his eyes cast to ground. "I owe you an apology, this should have been sorted out five months ago when you were first accepted on." I stared in shock, my eyes as round as dinner plates. I noted with a twinge of annoyance that he didn't apologize for the thirteen apparently unnecessary berating he had given me. I pushed aside my irritation, and instead focused on the light at the end of this tunnel.

"So, does this mean I won't have my powers taken away? Do I get to start over? Do I get to keep my monthly pay cheque?" My family needed all the financial help they could find, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if my mistakes took it away from them. A flutter of excitement flickered in my heart, and I felt a goofy grin creep across my face at the prospect of having my screw-ups disappear.

"No. Like I said, even without the guidebook's guidance, your common sense should have kicked in and warned you of bad ideas." The pop of my happy little bubble was tangible. "However," He spoke loudly over my sounds of indignation. "You will be granted another chance, with the aid of the guidebook this time, of course. If you prove yourself able to do this, you will be permitted to continue your apprenticeship. If not..." He left his threat unfinished.

"I understand, sir. Thank you for this opportunity." I told him sincerely. I was grateful for this second chance, even if it wasn't the one I was hoping for. As long as money continued to be sent home, I wasn't about to bicker over my only honorable way to earn it.

"Yes, well..." He reached into the drawer of his desk and withdrew a battered, thick, blue book. He shoved it into my hands unceremoniously, and steered me towards the door of his office. "Heidi has been waiting long enough, don't make her wait any longer. You have twenty-four hours to deal with this."

"Wait, what?" I exclaimed and braced myself against the door frame as he attempted to shove me out. "That's not fair! I didn't have the guidebook, I need time to study it."

"You have it now, so study it on the way. As far as anyone else knows, you always had that book, understand?" His voice had an edge to it that warned against arguing. He fixed his watery eyes on my face.

I found his insistence of secrecy to be strange, and I filed away this piece of information for future study. I sighed in defeat. "Yes, sir."

"Good. Go deal with Heidi. I believe chapter three will be particularly helpful to you." And with that, he gave a mighty shove to my back and slammed the door before I could change my mind.

"Old grouch." I grumbled. I tucked the book securely under my arm and jogged down the narrow hallway back to the lunch room. Hopefully Heidi hadn't decided to wander off.

I threw open the lunch room door, and was met with an empty room, save for a small patch of fog in the corner. While dragging me out of the room earlier, Darius had shot the group of Grimm's a scathing glare. That was apparently the only excuse they needed to evacuate from the dreadfully dull presentation. "Come on Heidi, I don't have much time," I puffed. "Let's find out how to bring you peace." I strode over to the nearest table and flopped down the book. The puff of dust that floated up indicated just how long the book had been sitting in Administrator Darius' desk. "This plan apparently didn't work, so let's see what chapter three says." I turned to the corresponding page number listed in the table of contents, and gasped when I saw the title of the page. "Possession. I didn't know that was allowed."

"Possession? Does that mean I have to... go into someone?" Heidi floated up beside me and peered over my shoulder.

I looked up from the book. "Looks that way." I snatched a bag left behind by a Grimm and stuffed the book into it. "Let's head back to Earth and find a living puppet, shall we?"

Of course, since good luck abhorred my presence so much, there was fine print for possession. First, the possessed must have had a connection to the possessor during their life. Seeing as her entire family died with her, and Heidi was adamant that she had no living friends, this only left an old classmate. Secondly, if the possessed person dies during the possession, they will automatically become unrested souls. This part didn't worry me, because in all reality, how dangerous could a speech possibly be?

In some strange blessing from fate, Heinrich Schafer, an old classmate of Heidi's, was set to give a speech of his own at a gala for the local museum in Stuttgart that he curated.

Directions and locating lost items were not my strong points. It took me six hours of searching the Directory of Living Beings in the Grim Reaper's Headquarters to find anyone with any connection to Heidi, and another five hours to find the museum Heinrich was due to give his speech at. We arrived about twelve hours before the gala, and were met with an empty museum. In a panic, we returned to the In-Between to recheck the directory to see if it was the right museum. This took three hours. To prevent gobbling up more time in case we had to recheck again, I brought the portable directory book back with us to Earth. Finding this book took another two hours. Refinding the museum also took two hours. By the time we were done, we had to wait five hours until the gala, and I only had six hours left of my twenty-four hour deadline.

As we stood outside the museum waiting for Heinrich to arrive, I turned to Heidi. "I know this isn't quite the same as giving your original presentation, but you're still speaking publicly in front of a large group of people. You're still proving you're not a wallflower by doing this."

She nodded, "Of course. But, how will I know what his speech was supposed to be about? I don't want to ruin the gala by messing it up. And...who is it that I'm supposed to possess?"

"Just...make something up. Ramble about the greatness of the museum, or something." I sighed in frustration and checked my watch. "The man's name is Heinrich Schafer, and don't worry, I'll know him when I see him."

She visibly stiffened when she heard his name. "Oh. All...all right." The rest of the evening passed in silence.

After many hours, droves of people dressed in stylish suits and bright dresses began to arrive. "There! There he is!" I pointed to a middle-aged man with receding grey hair. "That's Heinrich."

Heidi gulped and nodded mechanically. We followed Heinrich into the museum and were met with joyous music. He slowly made his way to the front of the large, bright, vaulted room, scooping a glass of champagne up from a passing server on his way.

"When he starts his speech, just step into him and concentrate. That should cause him to become possessed."

"Y-yes." Heidi's small voice wavered. I gave her a reassuring smile and stepped into the crowd of fancily dressed humans surrounding the small stage that Heinrich stood on. He tapped a fork against the glass in his hand and cleared his throat, calling the group's attention. In that moment, Heidi stepped into him and disappeared from sight.

"Oh, it worked! I mean..." Heinrich said. "Welcome to this wonderful gala! I hope you've been enjoying yourselves..."

Heidi, while inside of Heinrich, continued her speech and I examined the crowd. They all seemed to be enjoying her speech, and were quite focused on her. A late comer, a handsome dark haired man, made his way down the grand staircase in the middle of the room toward Heidi/Heinrich. I flickered my attention back to her speech.

"...to celebrate this donation made by local artists...Oh my god!" Heidi cut off her speech and stared at the shocking scene unfolding. The handsome man had swung his walking stick at one of the surrounding guards, and was marching menacingly toward Heidi/Heinrich. "What are you-" She was cut off again when the man lifted her up and threw her down onto a nearby decorative marble alter.

It was so surreal, I felt like I was watching a dream. My limbs felt like stone, my heart pounded in my ears, and I was unable to move. When the man shoved a strange spinning tool against Heinrich's eye socket and Heidi began to scream, I was snapped out of my daze.

"STOP! What are you doing?" I screamed at the man, forgetting he wouldn't be able to hear me. I struggled against the surge of humans desperate to escape the horror of this scene, and finally found an opening to slip through. What I saw made my blood run cold.

The handsome man's dashing suit had somehow managed to change into a suit of glittering gold armor On top of his long, dark hair a golden horned helmet was perched. And under him, was Heinrich. Heinrich's one remaining eye was dim, dead. His other eye showed how he had died. Or rather, the lack of his other eye. Instead of an eyeball, only an empty, bleeding eye socket was left.

"Heidi!" I screamed. "Heidi, where are you? Heinrich, are you here?" My eyes darted around the room, desperate to catch a glimpse of wispy fog. Nothing. Neither Heidi, nor Heinrich, were anywhere in sight.

The man stood from the marble slab and strode outside, not sparing a single glance back to the gory scene he caused. I ran after him, maybe Heidi had followed the surging mob outside. Maybe I could still help her and the newly murdered Heinrich.

As the cold autumn air slapped my face, I caught a snatchet of what the man was announcing to the crowd of fleeing humans. "...I am Loki, and you will kneel before me." Strangely, the man-Loki, he had called himself- was addressing the group of Germans in English. The nearby clock tower chimed and Loki shouted louder to be heard over it and the hysteria of the frantic humans. "KNEEL!"

As the crowd obeyed him, I felt my powers draining away. My twenty-four hours were up. I was out of time, trapped in the Realm of the Living with no powers to return home, and a homicidal maniac just ruined my only chance at redemption. Bad luck really loved me, so I'm not foolish enough to assume that this couldn't get any worse. But really, how could this possibly get any worse?


	2. Chapter 2 - Rache?

AN: Thank you so much for reading this, and I hope you hang on until the end! I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update this but I'll try to make it every week. Enjoy, and feel free to review :D

* * *

As the crowd knelt on the ground, I felt my powers draining away. I was out of time, trapped in the Realm of the Living with no power to return home. As if this wasn't enough, the intimidating man commanding the cowering crowd before me just ruined my one chance at redemption. Not to mention the fact he quite possibly murdered a ghost. I still hadn't had a chance to read the guidebook, so I wasn't sure if that could actually happen, but it definitely looked that way to me. Bad luck really loved me, and I'm not foolish enough to assume that this couldn't get any worse. But really, how could this get any worse?

Hot tears pricked behind my eyes. Without the powers of a Grim Reaper I was unable to teleport back to the In-Between, my home realm. Until further notice, I was trapped with no way to ever see my family again. The scene before me blurred from held in tears. The crowd of brightly dressed humans swam before me, and Loki became a foggy blur. I impatiently swiped the moisture from my face. Now that human's could see me, I couldn't go around sobbing uncontrollably. I had appearances to keep up.

"You are meant to be ruled, to be commanded..." Loki drawled, obviously enjoying every moment of dominating the crowd. But, there was something strange... I screwed my eyes shut and opened them again. Nope. The foggy glow around him stayed. I rubbed my eyes. The foggy aura was growing. I took a step towards him, and then another and another until I was running down the white stone steps of the museum.

Heidi had formed the same type of fog when I first met her in the graveyard. There was no doubt, that had to be her! She was all right! As I ran towards her, I noticed that an old man stood from the kneeling crowd.

"We will never bow down to men like you. There are _always_ men like you, and they will _always_ fall." The elderly man bravely replied to Loki in English. I was at the bottom of the stairs now, close enough to hear the whispery voice of Heidi and a deeper voice coming from the mass of fog. I skidded to a halt a few paces behind Loki and the fog.

The ghostly voices seemed to be carrying on a conversation. With a jolt, I realized I couldn't understand what they were saying. With another jolt, I realized I could still understand the English argument between Loki and the elderly man.

In order to help the many diverse souls of the Realm of the Living, Grim Reapers must be able to understand what the soul is saying. As such, we are granted the power to filter their languages into our native tongue. Without my powers, I was unable to understand the German conversation. I also shouldn't have been able to understand the English argument, yet I most definitely was.

My musings were interrupted when Loki raised his staff to the elderly man. It seemed their argument was over, and Loki had won. "Look to your elder as an example." Loki spat out.

"...rau...che..." Heidi's voice murmured.

"What?" I snapped my head away from the crowd back to the fog. "Rache? What does that mean? Is that what you want? Heidi, what do you mean? What's 'rache'?" It was a German word of some sort, but it held no meaning to me.

"This is what happens when you disobey your leader!" Loki's shout drew my attention from Heidi. The end of his staff was glowing blue like a taser, and he had it pointed threateningly at the elder's face. Before I could jump in between the old man and the maniac, a flash of blue knocked Loki back into me. Literally. Loki landed on top of me with a crash.

"Ouf!" I shouted. The thin man was much heavier than he first appeared, and his bony elbow dug into my cheek. "Get off of me!" I shoved with all of my might and wiggled viciously to be freed from his weight. He had shot right through the patch of fog consisting of Heidi and Heinrich and I had to make sure they were all right. Regardless if I could understand them, I still had to find a way to help them.

"Unhand me, you mortal!" He sneered.

"I'm trying to!" I managed to free myself of his weight and wobbily stood. "Heidi? Are you still here? Heinrich?" I called out. The crowd had taken the opportunity to flee, and could be seen running into nearby buildings. In the newly cleared street, a masked man stood dressed in a tight blue suit. I glanced down to the ground and saw that the blue flash had been a round shield, presumably thrown by the masked man.

"Step away from him, little lady." The strangely dressed man strode toward me, stooping to pick up his shield without missing a stride. In the distance I could hear a helicopter approaching.

"Ah yes, the man out of time." Loki's voice drifted from behind me, addressing the masked man.

"I'm not the one out of time." The man retorted and gestured to the helicopter hovering overhead. I noticed that it had a rather large gun trained onto Loki and me. I nervously glanced behind me. The sooner I could locate Heidi and Heinrich, the sooner I could get to finding a German to English dictionary and helping them.

As Loki and the masked man bantered, I saw the familiar fog lurking behind Loki. It seemed smaller than before, and more transparent. Having someone thrown through them had harmed them somehow.

"Surrender!" The masked man ordered.

"Never!" Loki spat.

"Have it your way." The man drew his arm back in preparation to throw his shield. This would have propelled Loki through the fog once again, possibly causing further damage to Heidi and Heinrich. So, I did the only rational thing I would think of. I jumped in front of Loki.

"Please stop," I pleaded, but it was too late. The man had already let go of his shield. It connected with my stomach and I doubled up in pain. I was knocked back and landed with a dull _thump_ at Loki's feet. My head hit the pavement with a _crack_. I gasped for air, too winded to breathe.

I heard a sigh as Loki stepped over me and lunged for the masked man. They fought outside my line of vision, but I could hear the grunts and thuds of connecting blows. I coughed, trying to bring air into my lungs. Through streaming eyes, I could barely make out the swirling mist of Heidi and Heinrich. The harder I tried to focus on them, the more they faded, until finally, nothing remained. "No," I croaked, and then passed out.

* * *

I awoke to a rocking sensation, not unlike a boat. My stomach ached and my head throbbed. "I must have a flu," I thought to myself. "I wonder what time it is? If it's breakfast, I could get up and grab a slice of toast. But if it's lunchtime, Mother will be in soon with a warm bowl of soup, so there wouldn't be a need for me to get up." My tender stomach growled at the prospect of food.

I cracked a bleary eye open to check the time, and found instead of my warm bright bedroom, a cold metal wall. I also found that instead of lying in my fluffy, cozy bed, I was propped upright against a hard surface. I tried to flick a strand of long brown hair away from tickling my nose when I noticed my hands were shackled together. When I shifted my feet, I found my legs were similarily bound. The hard thing I was leaning against moved when I shifted my legs. I slowly drifted my eyes upward, until they locked with cold blue eyes and a handsome face. I shot away and shrieked. The hard surface was Loki's armour, the rocking sensation was from the helicopter we were riding in, and my throbbing headache was probably a concussion. The extreme bad luck following me since birth had struck once again.

I scooted to the far end of the hard bench and eyed Loki warily. "Oh, look, the little weird-o is awake." An arrogant male voice came from my right side. When I jerked my head to see who spoke, I was met with brain splitting pain.

"Uhg," I groaned in pain as the mystery speaker walked in front of me. What I saw made no sense. "A...a robot?" I mumbled out loud. The dark haired man appeared to have the body of a robot with the metal painted a gaudy gold and red.

"No," The man looked slightly offended by my question, and smoothed out his well trimmed goatee. "This is a highly specialized suit of armour- you know what, I'm not even going to explain. I should be the one asking questions here, not you." He stepped towards me and narrowed his dark eyes, "Why are you helping Loki?"

"I'm not!" I protested and stared in shock at the man.

"Then why did you protect him from Cap' over here?" He gestured to the front of the helicopter, and the man in the blue suit popped his head around the corner. He had removed his mask, revealing himself to be an attractive blond man.

"I didn't! I didn't mean to anyway," I tried to explain to the metal man and the man he had called Cap'. "I was trying to protect Heidi and Heinrich. They were standing behind him" I shoved my chained hands toward Loki. "And if he fell into them again, he could have hurt them more!"

"There was no one standing behind him but you." Cap' spoke slowly, as if explaining to a child.

"Of course you couldn't see them, you're neither psychic nor a Grimm. Normal beings can't see souls." I was vaguely aware of how little sense I was making, but I was too frazzled to care. I spotted my bag containing the guidebook and the portable directory of souls tucked neatly beneath the bench across from me. I wondered if the guidebook had any advise for what to do in one of these situations. Probably not, I doubted anyone could have thought up advice fit for such a strange turn of events.

"Grimm? Souls?" Cap' peered at me concernedly and turned to the metal man. "She hit her head pretty hard before, she could have a brain injury. We should get her to the medical unit as soon as we reach the ship."

"I'm a Grim Reaper, we help trapped and lost souls." I tried and failed to make myself sound less insane. "Heidi was a trapped soul I was helping, before the maniac," I thrust my chained hands in Loki's direction again. "Went on and murdered Heinrich!" Maybe I did hit my head harder than I thought, I was rambling more than usual.

"Grim Reaper?" The metal man scoffed. "Aren't they supposed to wear a black robe, carry a scythe, and, oh yeah, be a skeleton?" I gazed down at my simple jumpsuit that acted as a uniform and looked back up.

"That was the old uniform, we upgraded."

"You still aren't a skeleton, and you still don't have a scythe. But whatever, do you have a name?" The metal man was growing impatient with this train of conversation.

"I'm..." I hesitated, unsure whether to tell him my real name and suffer from further mocking. "Leena." I settled with my nickname instead.

"Well, Leena, what does 'rache' mean? Is that the name of some sort of weapon? You kept saying it while you were unconscious, so don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about." The metal man crossed his arms and attempted to interrogate me. I blankly looked at him and shifted my vision to Cap, who looked very uncomfortable with interrogating a possibly seriously injured person. I flickered my eyes over to Loki, who looked very bored and uninterested with anything going on around him.

"Those were the last words Heidi said before she disappeared into nothingness with Heinrich. What does it mean? It's a German word of some sort, but what does it mean?" I asked, not really expecting an answer.

"It means 'revenge'," Cap' replied before turning to the metal man. "Look at her Tony, she's obviously confused. We should give her time to calm down and treat her head wound. She could be brainwashed by Loki, we need to have Natasha analyze her before we continue this."

"Fine." Tony snapped and glared spitefully in my direction. He raised a metal arm and pointed a finger at me. "I don't like being lied to. Remember that, Leena." He marched back to the cockpit, sparing a sneer along the way. His voice drifted back to us as he described, in loud detail, how crazy I was and how I believed myself to be a Grim Reaper. A feminine chuckle was the only reply heard from whoever he was talking to.

I allowed my mind to wander and try to make sense of this strangeness. Despite my lack of powers, I could still speak and understand English. If I was to be completely honest, I was even thinking in English. This was very strange. Almost as strange as Heidi's last words. Revenge. What did she mean? Did she want revenge against Loki? Revenge against Heinrich? Was she warning against acts of revenge? If only I could get my hands on my guidebook, it might have a section on what to do when possession is interrupted by murder. Did those souls have specific requirements to be met?

"Sounds like a pretty bad lightening storm out there," Cap' remarked and sat on the bench across from me.

"Uh-huh." I absentmindedly murmured.

"At least it isn't blizzarding. That's the hardest weather to fly in." Cap' continued on, oblivious to my preoccupation. "Pretty weird how it just started up out of the blue like this though, usually there's some warning signs." I looked around the interior again, and my eyes fell onto Loki. He looked paler than before and was nervously shifting on the bench. Cap' noticed this too. "What, are you afraid of a bit of lightening?" He asked the murderous maniac.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows." Loki vaguely replied. We both jumped when a loud _BANG_ echoed through the helicopter.

"What was that?" I asked. My question was answered when the door to the helicopter was ripped open. My shriek blent with the howling wind, and a large figure jumped inside. Whatever-it-was grabbed Loki off of the bench and disappeared through the gaping hole of a door. Tony shot out from the cockpit and promptly followed them outside. Cap' snatched a parachute and nearly jumped out too when the mysterious female voice drifted from the cockpit.

"I need help steering this thing, we're losing control." She sounded panicked, and after sending a longing look toward the gaping door, Cap' ran to help her.

I noticed that with every heart-stopping jolt of the aircraft, my bag dislodged a bit more from the bench. Just a bit more, and the bag would be close enough to kick closer. Just a bit further...one more huge bumb and the bag slid across the metal floor, landing on my scuffed boots. I silently cheered and reached into the bag. It took a bit of maneuvering with my hands cuffed together, but I finally managed to undo the bag's clasp and remove the guidebook.

I scanned the table of contents and felt a surge of panic. The book was written in my native tongue. Since I now (apparently) only spoke English, I couldn't read it.

But wait, there was one word I recognized! It loosely resembled the spelling of an English word and I could only assume its meaning was also similar. If I recognized one word, maybe I would understand others. I flipped through the book until I found a page with the words "Rewenje" and "Moydir". They looked similar to revenge and murder, so I scanned the page for more familiar words. "Rekymonted" looked like recommended.

"So revenge for murder is recommended? Does this mean I have to act out revenge for Heidi's and Heinrich's disappearance and death?" I was puzzled by what this would entail, but I was prepared to do nearly anything to return home.

Now the problem arose. The man I was supposed to exact revenge against had just been, for lack of better word, kidnapped from this helicopter. Considering how high we were flying, he was probably a pancake on the cement. I had no idea how to exact revenge against a pancake, so I could only hope he had a magical jetpack strapped to his bony shoulders before falling.


	3. Chapter 3 - Shackles

AN: *SQUEE* This is my fangirl squeal every time I write (or think) about Loki. This happens pretty often. :3 My sounds of joy from seeing another view on this story is indescribable, nearly ultra-sonic. Thank you so much for reading :)

* * *

According to my guidebook, revenge for a murdered victim is recommended. Probably. It could've recommended that I stick my tongue to a metal pole in the dead of winter for all I knew. Guessing at a language by looking for English sounding words was rather difficult, and presumably rather inaccurate.

Regardless, this was the closest thing I had to a lead on how to bring Heidi and Heinrich to peace, and myself back to The In-Between. But now a problem arose. Heidi had been standing over Loki when she requested revenge, so I could only assume she wanted revenge against _him_. However, Loki had just been dragged out of the helicopter by a burly blonde blur in mid-flight. How could I exact revenge against a missing person?

Maybe he died from the fall. Maybe that would count as revenge, and I could return home? I squeezed my eyes shut and concentrated on teleporting back to The In-Between. Nothing happened.

"Tony's been down there for awhile." Cap's uncertain voice drifted from the cockpit. "Can you handle flying this on your own? The storm's died down now, Natasha."

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Go check on him, and get that prisoner back." Natasha reassured. Not needing any further encouragement, Cap' ran out of the cockpit, his parachute already strapped on, and dived out the gaping hole of a door. I hurriedly stuffed the guidebook back into the bag and after reclosing the clasp, I gave a mighty kick. The bag slid across the metal floor and landed smack-dab in the middle. It was too far away to kick any further to the opposite bench, but too close to be left unnoticed. Great.

I leant forward to check if Natasha was occupied with flying. All I could see was the back of her bobbed red hair. Deeming the situation safe, I slowly sat from the bench and took a step toward the bag.

"Sit. Down." Natasha's firm voice jolted me. "You're not going to jump out and save your little boyfriend. You're going to sit down, shut up, and look pretty." She turned her head and stared me down until I took a step back out of her view. I sat back down, stunned by her scolding.

"Loki's not my boyfriend." I glumly corrected her after a moment of silence. "He's not even an ally. I haven't seen him before today, and he's already ruined my chance at returning home." Natasha hummed in response, clearly not believing me.

Time seemed to drag on as the gears of my mind turned. I had to find a way to track down Loki, get rid of these shackles, and prevent Loki from running away while exacting my revenge. This was going to be hard.

The first part of my checklist was completed when Tony flew into the helicopter. He released his grip on Loki, giving a shove to his back as an urge to sit back down on the bench beside me. Even though Loki didn't have a jetpack, it appeared Tony certainly did and he had transported both of them back to the helicopter with it. As Loki complied with Tony's unspoken command, the burly blonde blur that had dragged him out before leaped into the helicopter. Unlike Tony, there was no obvious way for the burly man to have found his way back into the helicopter. Maybe he could just jump really high?

"Thanks for the ride back up here." Cap' hopped off of the blond brute's back and shuffled toward the bench.

"Not a problem, patriotic one." He gave a hearty chuckle. A dark scowl crossed his faced when his vision fell onto Loki. He shook his head sadly and stepped toward the bench across from us. Along his way, the tall man kicked my bag with his heavy boot, obviously oblivious to its existence. If only Tony could have been that oblivious.

"Why's that out from under the bench?" Tony shot an accusitory look my way.

"It slid out during the bumpy ride." I told him the simple truth. There was no need to explain further. Tony already suspected that I was in cahoots with Loki, and refused to believe that I was a Grim Reaper. While I didn't blame him for this, I knew saying that I was checking the Grim Reaper's Extraordinary Guidebook to Reaping and Grimming would only encourage his suspicions.

"What's in here, anyway?" Tony reached down and yanked open the bag. The burly blonde man peered up from his seat to see what Tony found. Loki glared ahead, unwilling to acknowledge anyone. Cap' had disappeared into the cockpit again, but I'm sure he would have shown interest in the strange book if he was nearby.

"They're um...diaries. Drunken diaries. I write in them when I've been drinking. It's a bunch of illegible ramblings. I thought it would be fun to see what I'm like while drunk, but it didn't really work out." I lied to him. I've never been drunk before, I didn't see a use for it.

"Aren't you a little young to be drinking?" Tony studied my face while flipping through the guidebook. I shook my head.

"No. I look younger than I am." Ah, finally, a bit of truth. Developmentally, I was in my late teens to early twenties. Technically, I was over a century old. Grimm's aged a bit slower than living beings.

Tony shrugged and slammed the book closed. "Yeah, I tried to write one before too. The trick is to write throughout the entire night, not just when you're wasted." He leant forward, as if sharing the most important secret in the world. "That way, you can be sure at least some of it's readable, instead of having complete garble like this." He stuffed the book back into the bag and kicked it under the burly man's bench. "Move your feet Thor, I can't fit it back under here." Thor, the blonde blur from earlier, shifted his feet to the side.

On closer inspection, I noticed that Thor was wearing a similar set of armour as Loki. Besides a few differences, including silver metal plates instead of gold and a red cloak instead of green, it was evident these armours were from the same region. Probably not anywhere on Earth though, they stopped using armour like that a few centuries ago. It was pretty popular on Asgard for the moment, perhaps that was where these two strange men were from? But why would Thor drag Loki out of the helicopter, only to return him and sit calmly? That didn't seem very Asgardian.

Regardless, it was time to move on to part two of my plan: get rid of these shackles. If only Cap' was back here, he would probably uncuff me without too much fuss. Tony didn't seem as angry at me any more, and my pretended alcoholism had formed a bond with him. Maybe he would help?

"Ouch!" I yelped and clutched my wrist. "What a sharp pain! Uhg, it's swelling really bad."

Tony peered down at me and Thor furrowed his bushy brow in concern. "What's wrong with you?" Tony asked.

"M-my wrist, it really hurts. It's getting red and swollen, I must have fallen on it funny."

"No, it's not, it looks fine to me," Tony contradicted and leaned closer.

"These cuffs keep digging in, look." I twisted my wrists, causing them to chafe against the metal. "You can't see from where you're standing, but it's all red and gross looking."

"Give it here." Tony instructed and held out a metal palm. I complied. "Ew. It _is_ red. Hey Cap', you still have those keys?" He called out.

Cap's head appeared into view. "Here." He called back and threw a small ring of keys toward Tony. "I want them back."

"Yeah, yeah," Tony muttered as he removed a specific key from the ring. He tossed the remaining ring of keys back to Cap' before turning to me. "I'm going to loosen the cuffs until you can get checked out by a doctor. A healthy wrist should _not_ look like that." He grimaced and inserted the key. As soon as the lock was undone, I snatched my hands back.

Ever the opportunistic, I found the solution to the third part of my plan. One cuff was hanging open, while the other was still firmly attached. Before anyone could react, I lunged at Loki and cuffed the loose shackle to his right wrist. My mind registered a flaw in my plan, which I quickly amended. I smacked Tony's slack hand, sending the single key flying through the air.

_Skreee_. The key slid across the metal floor as everyone but me watched on in horror. _Ka_-_thump_. Instead of stopping at the lip of the gaping door, it managed to hop over it and fall into the empty sky.

There. That fixed that problem. Now Loki wouldn't be able to escape from me. A small voice inside me worried about how I would use the bathroom while chained Loki, but I reasoned that I would enact my revenge against him before that problem could present itself.

I smiled, a bit more smugly than I'm proud of, and surveyed the reactions of Tony, Thor, and Loki. Tony looked confused, Thor looked amused, and Loki looked absolutely furious.

"You're not going to believe what Leena just did." Tony called out to Cap' and Natasha.

"You can tell us when we land, we're nearly at the base." Natasha shouted back.

"You should really see this," Tony insisted. "I think Loki's head's gunna explode!"

I glanced over to Loki and found that his pale complexion had turned red and a vein, not unlike Darius', throbbed in his temple. "Bwa!" Thor snorted. He snickered and gulped, as if to hold back his laughter. That didn't work though, and he let out an Earth-shaking gaffaw. "The look on your face Brother, it is truly priceless." He continued to laugh and brushed a tear from his streaming eyes. Brothers. That explained Thor's actions. Even on their best days, I still had to fight the urge to slap sense into my two brothers back home.

"I'm not your brother," Loki snarled, but Thor continued on as if he hadn't said anything. Oh. Well, I was right back to being confused then.

"Fret not, I am certain there is another key." Thor giggled shamelessly. "Until then," another snicker, "Perhaps this will teach you that you are equal to humans."

"I am not equal to those ants!" "I'm not human, I'm a Grim Reaper!" Loki and I exclaimed at the same time. Thor chortled.

"Uhh, no." Tony shook his head slowly. "There isn't another key, actually. Those shackles are the prototype designed to contain the Hulk. There was only one key for each pair and," Everyone turned to look at the open door, and back to Tony again. "Leena just destroyed her key. The cuff's are made from Vibranium which, in case you didn't know, is virtually indestructible. Good going kid, you just sewed yourself to Loki's side. Enjoy eternal Shakespeare in the Park." Tony rolled his eyes.

A small niggle of regret floated in my stomach. I pushed it away. I had already decided that this was a necessary part of my plan, there was no time to worry about consequences.

It was time to form a new plan. What was considered revenge? Would I have to interrupt a speech of his? Would I have to gouge out his eye? My stomach sunk at the next possibility; what if I had to murder him? As despicable as Loki was, murder was murder. I saw how terrified the souls of murdered victims were, I didn't want to create one.

I wouldn't kill Loki. I would do everything else possible, starting with interrupting everything he said. And then if that didn't work, Loki would have to part with an eye. If that wasn't enough, then I would just have to find as many lost souls as possible to pass on a message to their Grim Reapers. Maybe they could eventually pass my message on to Administrator Darius and I could return home. Losing my powers permanently was worth avoiding murder.

"Then I will simply have to tear off your-" Loki began a threat.

"Sure is a nice night out. A bit cold, but you can always see the stars better on cold nights." I interrupted.

"Do not talk over me, you pathetic-"

"Yup. Such a nice night."

"What are you-"

"I'm sorry about lying to you Tony, that was disrespectful of me. My wrist _does_ hurt, just not as badly as I made it seem."

"Stop it this-" Loki stood and glared down at me.

"I probably _did_ land on it funny, and the cuffs _were_ digging in. I made it look more red by chaffing it with the cuff. That was a pretty good idea, huh?"

"Stop it!" Loki shouted and lunged at me, as if to strike out.

"Watch it!" Tony jumped in the small space between us to block Loki. "Touch her, and I'll rearrange your face." He raised a glowing metal palm to Loki's face. Loki's handsome face was distorted with rage, but he slowly sat back down beside me.

"Useless-"

"Thank you," I continued to interrupt Loki. "I thought you said you hated to be lied to?"

"I do. But you're going to suffer enough being attached by the hip to _that_. You're getting what you deserve."

"I suppose." I murmured. I fiddled with the cuff on my left hand, and tried to remember if I saw Loki return the tool he had used to gouge out Heinrich's eye to his pocket. If he still had it with him, I'd bet using it on Loki would count as double revenge.

"We're coming down for a landing guys, prepare yourselves." Natasha warned. Thor's giggle broke the silence that followed.

"I _still_ cannot fathom your reasoning for this, young maiden, but it is certainly amusing!" Thor shook his blonde head, a wry smile painted across his features. I gave a small smile in return and glanced over to Loki.

Both of his hands were curled into fists, the knuckles white from rage. He glared straight ahead and if I could read minds, I'm certain I would've discovered many interesting (and horrifying) ways to kill me floating around his brain. Loki was a ticking time bomb, and I certainly didn't want to be around when he blew up.

I concentrated on teleporting back home again. I imagined the familiar swooping feeling in my stomach, the flash of light at the end. I imagined the smell of dead leaves that would be falling near the teleport station this time of year. I imagined with all of my might, and concentrated until my concussion made my head spin dangerously.

"Step out of the aircraft." I opened my eyes to find myself still chained to Loki, still in the helicopter, still without any powers. The only thing different was that there was now a group of heavily armoured humans pointing guns at Loki and me. I guess we had landed. I guess interrupting everything Loki said hadn't worked.

Damn. I really didn't want to pry out his eye. It sounded disgusting, not to mention messy. I had to pay for any damages done to my work uniform, and I'm pretty sure blood stains counted as damage. I looked down and grimaced. As it was, the left knee of my jumpsuit was torn from where I fell. I suspected that I would already be suffering a pay docking for messing up this badly. Bad luck really loved me, nearly as much as money hated me.

As I stood, Loki stuck out his boot. Unable to catch myself with an injured wrist, I fell onto the metal floor with only my face, knees, and elbows to break my fall.

_Riiip_. Oh. More damages to the uniform. This was going to be a very large pay docking. I was probably going to have to find a second job. Maybe I could become a museum curator, since that seemed fun. I decided to ignore the impossibility of that option.

"Be careful where you walk, you bumbling-"

"Oh look! A penny!" I interrupted and pointed to the coin on the floor. Maybe I just hadn't interrupted him enough yet. Or maybe, it was time to bring this revenge to a whole new level.

"Ha, that's probably the most money you have ever-" Loki began another insult.

"Ever haaad." I finished his sentence with a high pitched sneer. Obviously, just interrupting Loki was not what Heidi had in mind. And so, I began Mission Mimic.


	4. Chapter 4 - Cage

AN: Thank you for your continued support, I'm sorry this chapter took a bit longer than usual to post. Enjoy =)

* * *

I stood as far from Loki as the shackles would allow and waited for him to fall into slumber. The sooner he fell asleep, the sooner I could try to pry his eye out. As disgusting as it was, it had to be done.

Mission Mimic had not worked. Since Loki had humiliated Heidi and Heinrich by rudely interrupting their speech, I had grasped at the possibility that I only had to humiliate and interrupt him in turn.

All it did was cause Loki to fly into a temper. The angrier he became, the more unpleasant he became. By unpleasant, of course, I mean hate filled and insane. On the bright side, the more unpleasant he became, the easier it was to dislike him and dismiss any feelings of guilt and reservations about harming him. And so, I continued mimicking and interrupting him.

"Staring at me, while uncomfortable, does not count as a means of re-"

"Count as reeeeveeenge," I mimicked back with a high pitched sneer. Loki opened his dark rimmed eyes to shoot a vicious glare up at me. Even while laying sprawled out on a much too small cot, he still found a way to be intimidating. He huffed a small sigh and closed his eyes again. I knew when to choose my battles, and I decided that letting him sleep was more important than goading him into an argument. The faster he fell asleep, the less likely it was that I would lose my nerve.

I leaned against the glass wall and surveyed the small room. Blindingly white tile covered the floor, and floor to ceiling glass acted as walls for the round room. Aside from a small white walled closet, presumably the toilet, we could be observed by all angles. It was a bit unnerving to know that every move I made was being watched and studied. Director Fury had stressed that point multiple times during the brief interrogation.

I suppose he might have intended it as a form of reassurance that Loki couldn't hurt me, but I was more worried about the fact our holding cell could be dropped from 8000 meters in the air at the mere whim of the airship's crew. The worst Loki threatened to do was remove my arm, Fury would have us dropped to our certain deaths. I knew who I feared more.

After being escorted to this giant fishbowl, we had been interrogated. Well, I had. Loki had been ignored, only acknowledged to be threatened against harming me. Against my will, my mind drifted to earlier in the day

* * *

After my little stumble in the helicopter, one of the armoured and armed guards hauled me roughly to my feet. Loki and I had been marched at gunpoint out of the helicopter and onto the landing strip of the airship. The walk from the helicopter to the entrance of the ship was shamelessly filled with squabbling.

"Please stop pulling on the chain," I requested after Loki 'accidentally' jerked the shackles for the third time. It was beginning to hurt my shoulder.

"Whatever do you mean?" He had replied with an innocent look smeared across his face.

"Just stop it."

"No." A rougher yank than before nearly sent me sprawling on the ground again.

"Stop it!"

"If you did not wish to be pulled along, you should not have shackled yourself to me. It is not my fault you cannot keep up with a god." He gave a snobbish sniff.

"Can't keep up with a goooood," I mimicked back to him and scoffed. "I can't wait to be free of you, you're nothing but a big baby!" Frustration temporarily prevented me from fully registering the fact that he had just referred to himself as a god. He was nothing more than a spoiled, arrogant child, playing dress-up and make-believe. Guilt niggled at my conscious. Was it really all right to harm someone this immature? Did he even realize his actions were wrong?

"Oh, let me help you with that. Tearing off your arm would bring me much joy." Loki narrowed his eyes and grabbed for my shackled arm. My little bubble of compassion popped.

"Knock it off!" Natasha caught up with us outside the entrance and cut off my retort. "You're acting like an old married couple." She rolled her eyes and entered the security code for the door. None of the old married couples _I_ knew threatened to tear off each other's limbs. I concluded that perhaps human relationships worked differently than Grimm's. The rest of the trip was filled with tense silence, only punctuated by a jerk of the shackles and a prod to our backs by the gun of an impatient guard.

When we finally arrived at the centre of the airship, we were confronted with the imposing figure of a tall, dark, bald man. His one remaining eye narrowed as he saw the cuffs between Loki and I. I noted that his missing eye was covered with a stylish black eye patch. Maybe he could help Loki find one like that when I was done with him? It would go well with Loki's leather armour.

"This is where you'll be staying while we find the Tesseract." The man gestured to the glass holding chamber suspended by metal brackets behind him. His boots rang out with every stomp down the steel bridge leading to the jail cell. _Thump_ _Thump_.

My pounding headache returned and I jammed my eyes shut.

_Taka_ _Taka_.

It sounded like he was typing something, probably the code to open the doors of the chamber.

_Beep_ _Beep_.

Two shrill electronic chirps pierced through the air and my mind. Yes, this was definitely a concussion. I felt so groggy, like I was in a fog. Nausea roiled in my gut, which I ferociously fought back.

The irritating prod of the gun shoved against my back urged me to walk forward. I snapped my eyes open and wobbled along beside Loki. The wheels turned in my cloudy brain, and I came to the realization that I would be trapped in the small cell with Loki. Perfect. I could enact my revenge completely undisturbed. Loki paused outside the sliding glass doors and turned back to the one-eyed man.

"Oof!" Unaware of his sudden stop, I bumped into Loki's armoured chest. It seemed as if everyone on this ship was heavily armoured and protected. I felt ridiculously under dressed in my tattered and rather flimsy jumpsuit. Besides Natasha, I wore the most vulnerable outfit. She wore a much too tight catsuit. Pretty impractical, in my opinion. Oh, and Cap'. He had that thin blue spandex suit on. I felt slightly comforted I wasn't the only terribly under dressed person on this aircraft.

"When will this pest," Loki curled his lip, "be removed from my person?"

"She won't be." Natasha stepped out from the group of guards. "You will both be kept here until an appropriate means is found to remove the handcuffs. Then you'll get the whole place to yourself, and the girl can go through severe mental analysis to find out what's wrong with her."

"Nothing's wrong with me!" I protested, "Although, I have a pretty bad head wound that should probably be seen to." Natasha sent a searing scowl my way. "No worries. Just continue on." I edged toward the glass chamber.

She turned to the one-eyed man and answered his unvoiced question. "She chained herself to him on the ride over here. Rogers detained her in Stuttgart after she protected Loki, and we were transporting them both back for questioning. I'll write a full debriefing and have it submitted by the hour."

"Start on it now. You're dismissed. The same goes for you," The one-eyed man addressed the guards. "Return to your stations." They raised their hands in salute and marched out, Natasha following close behind. "Care to explain?" His sharp eye focused on me.

"Not especially." I found his gaze to be unsettling and studied the metal walkway to avoid it. That's when I noticed just how high up the path was. A dizzying distance stretched to the far off bottom. This was not helping with my nausea, so I decided to brave his unsettling stare instead.

"No?" He cocked his head to the side, his voice clearly held unspoken threats.

"You won't believe me."

"It's true, you won't. She's a terrible liar." Loki contributed.

"It's a good thing I wasn't lying then, huh?" I snapped back to him. "I _am_ an Apprentice Grim Reaper! I come from the In-Between, it's a different dimension, or realm, or whatever you want to call it. We help lost and trapped souls move on to the Realm of the Dead. I was in the middle of a mission when you ruined it," I stamped my foot, "You ruined it! And now I'm stuck in the Realm of the Living because my powers have been taken away, because of _you_." I shook my head in disgust.

"Great, another alien." The one-eyed man sighed. "Do you have a name, Miss Grim Reaper?"

"L-Leena." I was pleasantly surprised by how easily he accepted my story. I glanced over to Loki and found that a smug smirk had replaced the sneer of before. Why? What made him change his mood so quickly? I struggled against my foggy mind. Then it hit me; he was smug he had made me explain when I didn't want to. He was happy that he had manipulated me.

"I'm Director Fury." The one-eyed man replied. "And that's a great story, but it doesn't explain why you willingly chained yourself to someone who- how did you put it? Ruined your mission." He raised a thick eyebrow.

"To complete my mission." I edged ever closer to the sliding glass door. "The last thing the soul I was aiding said was 'revenge'. Then she disappeared, so that's all I have to go on."

"You chained us together for revenge?" Loki asked incredulously. "You are annoying, yes, but...How is this revenge? Imposing yourself and irritating me do not seem to be very effective means of revenge."

"To keep you from running away. To keep you in my sights as I enact my revenge." I narrowed my eyes and yanked as hard as I could on the chain. Nothing happened. Pulling him into the glass chamber was not working.

"Great. Well, if both of you could step into the cage," Nick brushed us off. He was probably itching to find Natasha and get the full story out of someone presumably sane. He had better things to do than stand here and listen to us bicker. Like look for the Tesseract, whatever that was. It sounded important. "If either of you try any funny business,"

_Beep_-_Boop_.

_Whoosh_.

At a press of a button, the long drop down to the bottom became longer. A lot longer. About 8000 meters longer, leading straight to the surface of Earth. The airship apparently had a latch directly below the suspended glass cage. The opening of the latch had sucked all the air out of the room and sent even more flying back in. My already messy bun came undone from the force of the wind and whipped wildly, smacking both Loki and myself in the face. I spat out a mouthful of hair and strained to hear Fury over the roaring wind.

"If either of you harm each other, if you so much as sneeze in each other's direction, I will open this latch," He gestured towards the computer, "and drop the holding cell out of this aircraft. A fall like that would kill anyone, even a god." His voice was laced with sarcasm, obviously as skeptical as I was that Loki was actually a god.

My mother loved learning about the Realm of the Living. She especially enjoyed learning of their folktales, myths, and religions throughout the ages. If Loki was really a god, my brothers and I would have certainly heard about him in our bedtime stories. But we didn't.

_Shuuup_.

The latch whooshed closed again, stemming the ferocious wind. Loki impatiently flicked my hair from his face and stalked into the holding cell. I followed as far behind as the shackles would allow, and nearly tripped on the shackles around my feet. I was far more uncoordinated than usual today. Maybe it was from my concussion. Or maybe I wasn't having a terrible enough day and bad luck had decided to make it worse in any way possible. The second option sounded much more likely.

The glass doors slid closed soundlessly behind us. Fury had declared one more warning against the detachment of my arm and revenge against Loki, punctuated by a thumb jab towards the many corners and walls covered in security cameras. After that, he had left the room.

After an hour or so of pacing (according to my pocket watch, now sporting a cracked face from the shield thrown at it), Loki sighed, and stood perfectly still. I studied him as he stood there and tried to figure out where he would keep the tool he used to remove Heinrich's eye. It was difficult to judge if he had many pockets on his suit of armour, or none. As I studied him, I had the strangest feeling he was studying me too, just not as openly.

Then, I suppose, he became tired of the game and plunked himself down on a small cot bolted to the glass wall. I could have complained and claimed that, as an injured person, I had rightful claim to the cot, but it didn't look very sturdy and I would much rather it collapse under his weight than mine. I could've used a good laugh. We stayed like that for sometime, me standing over him, him sprawled out on the cot.

* * *

"Snortle." Loki shnuffled and shifted on the cot. I peered at him from my healthy distance away, trying to tell if he was just fake sleeping. It didn't seem likely such a frightening man could make such an adorable sound in his sleep. "Hmm." He let out a tiny whimper. If I hadn't been standing right over him, I wouldn't have heard it. I doubted if even the high-tech cameras had picked it up.

I took a tentative step to Loki and gazed down at him. His dark eyebrows were furrowed and his pale face had a slight sheen of sweat. A nightmare? Or a trap?

"F-father," He murmured. I doubted Loki would lower himself as to pretend to have a nightmare about his father. He would probably consider having family as a weakness and to show weakness, even just for a trap, seemed out of character for him. But, I really wouldn't have put anything past this lunatic. If he was willing to kill someone for- I realized I didn't even know why he had killed Heinrich. This bothered me. This bothered me so much, I completely lost my original train of thought.

If I didn't know why Heinrich was murdered and Heidi's chance at moving on the the Realm of the Dead was ruined, how could I expect to properly enact revenge?

"Uhn," Loki whimpered louder. This bothered me too. How dare someone as horrible as Loki have such a terrible nightmare about his _father_? Why wasn't he having a nightmare about his terrible actions against Heinrich instead? He should be regretting his murderous actions, not family spats.

Above all else, my own actions bothered me the most. How dare I feel compassion, pity towards this monster? I had to hate him. He acted terrible against me, against Heidi, against Heinrich. He even acted terrible against the old man in the crowd in Stuttgart. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't bring myself to completely hate Loki. Strongly dislike, yes. But not hate.

The familiar strong knot of anxiety clawed at my belly. It had happened. I had lost my nerve.

I sighed and shoved my hair away from my face. The ribbon I usually used to tie it into a bun had flown away in the strong wind. It was long gone, and I had nothing else to use. I adamantly refused to rip a strip off of my uniform, I didn't plan on paying Darius for any more damages than need be. My gaze flickered back down to Loki. His armour had many decorative strips of leather sewn on it. If I could just tear a piece off...

I slowly raised my free hand up and reached toward Loki. "Oh!" I quietly exclaimed when he jerked his shackled hands up to his face. I held my breath as he rubbed his nose and rested his right hand on his neck.

"Shnorffle," Loki gently snored and continued to sleep. I tried to reach for a piece of leather, but found I couldn't quite reach it. When Loki had scratched his nose, he had managed to pin the shackles connecting us under his arm. The perfect length of leather mocked me just out of reach.

I gently braced my shackled hand against his neck and stretched as far forward as possible. Unbeknownst to me, my long hair slipped over my shoulder and landed on his face. I gripped the piece of leather and yanked as hard as I could. It was sewn on better than I had originally assumed. I braced my shackled hand harder and tried again. And again. And again, each time I shoved down harder with my shackled hand to gain better leverage.

"Gawk," Loki made a strange, strangled sound. I decided that as soon as I removed the strip of leather, I would wake him from his terrible nightmare. "Kkurk," another, more urgent sound escaped from him. I picked at the stitches with my nails and leaned closer to bite off the final corner that refused to detach. "Gaaah!" Loki gasped.

"Ah-ha!" I exclaimed and shot back, the thin strip of leather clutched in my pale fist. At the same time, Loki rolled off of the cot and landed on the floor with a thud. The sudden movement jolted me and dragged me down with him.

"What is wrong with you?" Loki gasped and coughed, collapsed on his hands and knees.

"Huh?" I asked, and realized he must be referring to why I hadn't woken him from his horrifying nightmare. "Oh, I'm sorry about that. I just wanted to grab this," I held up the makeshift hair ribbon. "before I woke you up. I didn't think you'd give it to me willingly. But I assure you, I fully intended to wake you up." I flashed the same reassuring smile I usually gave worried souls.

"That's fantastic!" Loki snarled, "After you strangled me to death and smothered me with your hair, you would have resuscitated me. How kind."

I stared blankly at him. "I don't think we're talking about the same thing," I quietly observed. "Weren't we talking about your nightmare?"

He rubbed his throat where I had braced myself and sat back on his heels. He raised his head and gave me such a cold glare, I wouldn't have been surprised if icicles formed on me. He slowly raised himself from the floor and took a menacing step towards me. He opened his mouth, and quickly snapped it shut again.

_Thump thud_ _thump_. _Thud thump_ _thump_.

Rapidly approaching footsteps interrupted Loki. We both turned to the transparent doors.

"Leena!" Cap' shouted and skidded to a halt outside the glass chamber. "I can't believe they didn't take you to the medical unit. I saw you on the surveillance system, and I noticed you still had all the," He gestured to my head. "the blood. They would have cleaned you up if the medical unit had a look at you."

I raised a hand to my head. I hadn't noticed it bleeding. My fingers brushed against my hairline and felt something sticky. Gross.

"I'm sorry I didn't come by sooner, I had to-" He stopped himself, as if realizing Loki was still here and he that was about to reveal important information a prisoner probably shouldn't know. "Well, I'm going to escort you to the medical station now."

I nodded and twisted my waist-length hair into a bun atop my head, fastening it in place with the leather tie. I wasn't about to bicker about medical attention, I knew I needed it. My stomach grumbled loudly, my head throbbed, and my eyes felt extremely heavy. Maybe the medical station had food, an icepack, and a nice place to curl up for nap. Perhaps if my head wound was seen to, I would be able to think clearer and form a better plan than gauging out Loki's eye. Or maybe Loki would do something else awful that would spark enough dislike to justify hurting him. Either way, I needed a clear head to think, and the means to achieve it were not in the glass cage.


	5. Chapter 5 - The Pocket Watch

AN: Hope you enjoy this chapter, feel free to offer suggestions in areas that could use improvement. Of course, ensure the suggestion is paired with, or is in the form of, a compliment :3 hahaha

* * *

"Is this going to take much longer?" Loki tapped his foot impatiently.

"The wound must be seen to thoroughly. Besides, it's not as if you have anywhere better to be. I'm sure you can bear another half-hour away from your glass cage." Cap' snidely retorted

The nurse seeing to my head wound was obviously uncomfortable with Cap' and Loki's non-stop bickering. In an attempt to smooth over the rising tension in the small, sterile room, she offered a small reassurance. "I'm nearly done cleaning the cut, then all I have to do is put her wrist in a brace."

"Hm." Loki grunted in response.

"Don't feel rushed, ma'am. Do what you have to do. Loki has no say here, he's just a prisoner." Cap' crossed his well muscled arms across his chest and raised a brow, as if to challenge Loki to reply.

"Rather high on yourself, aren't you?" He rose to the challenge.

"Pot, meet kettle." I mumbled quietly.

Loki continued on as if I hadn't just called him out on his blatant display of hypocrisy. "How quickly you forget who caused her wounds. Guilty? You should be. Who knows what damage you caused. As it is, the poor girl has disillusioned herself as a Grim Reaper. She could have internal bleeding from your pathetic shield-throwing stint. She could be dying. Are you afraid of having another death on your conscious? Because it _will_ be on your conscious. That's the downfall of being an ant. You are constantly burdened with useless emotions." It wasn't hard to see that Loki was goading Cap' into a fight. I wouldn't believe for a second that Loki actually cared about my well-being.

"Big words from a bully. What's the matter? Is all that grease from your hair giving you a headache? A little shampoo could go a long way." Cap's face was growing pink, and his lips were pressed into a thin white line. I studied Loki from the corner of my eye and realized how greasy his hair had become after his nightmare-filled nap.

"Come now, soldier boy," Loki sneered and leant over my shoulder to push his face closer to Cap'. "Do you need another ice bath to clear your head? The previous one did such a good job, there's nearly nothing left between your ears."

"Another ice bath? What happened to you before?" I asked Cap' in an attempt to stop the argument before it escalated yet again. The trip to the medical ward had been filled with well-aimed verbal jabs, and upon arrival it had boiled over into a small shouting match. It had caused the delicate looking nurse to grow pale under her tan, and she had nervously flapped her hands as if to shoo away the bad air between Cap' and Loki. Stuck in between the strange display, I had simply stood awkwardly, uncertain of what to do. Living beings were much harder to deal with than souls.

"He was frozen alive under the snow seventy years ago, he melted out with the aid of a secret organisation." Loki quickly answered for him.

"Fine. Don't tell me then. I was just trying to change the topic, you didn't have to be rude." I snapped back. I had enough of his manipulation, I wasn't about to accept his sass too.

"Um, no." Cap' sheepishly piped up. "I was _actually_ frozen alive. I went through a special procedure that somehow allowed me to survive. And...it really did happen about seventy years ago. I was...um..thawed out... a little while ago."

I raised my eyebrows. "I see." I didn't see. It made no sense to me. As a human, Cap' should have died from being frozen alive. Not to mention the fact that he should not look that young at plus seventy years of age.

I winced as a particularly sharp sting of pain shot through my head. The more nervous the nurse became, the more rapidly she dabbed the disinfectant soaked cotton ball against the cut. The more rapid the dabs, the rougher they became. I mentally scrambled to think of something to put the nurse at ease.

"Say, would you accept a slightly damaged pocket watch to give him a shot of general anaesthesia?" I jerked a thumb to Loki looming over my shoulder and used my free hand to fish the watch from my pocket. "It's kind of broken, the real payment would be in the satisfaction of knocking him out and getting a few moments of relief from his terrible personality." I held up the cracked pocket watch and grinned cheekily.

The nurse gave a small smile that set her hazel eyes twinkling and paused her dabbing. "Only if you drag him back to your cell afterwards. I wouldn't want to be around when he wakes up." I laughed and shook my head. She gave a sympathetic smile. "Then it looks like we've reached an impasse."

"I suppose." I nodded my head in mock seriousness.

"Stop moving so much," She gently scolded me and gave a final dab to the cut. "The more you wiggle, the more it will hurt."

"Sorry," I mumbled and tried to sit still. At a very young age, I had discovered that sitting still when instructed to was nearly impossible. As a child, if Mother told me and my brothers to sit still during a hair trim or during the family portrait, we would instantaneously suffer from an itchy nose, a leg cramp, bunched up clothing -or worse yet, a case of hiccups. This little quirk did not fade with age.

_"Hic_."

Great. My batches of hiccups were known to last as long as three days, and I dreaded the beginning of them. I glanced furtively around the medical ward and hoped no one had noticed.

"_Hic_."

I tried to seem as inconspicuous as possible. So far, they were still in the Quiet Hiccup phase. Next would be the Medium Hiccup phase, followed by the Loud Hiccup phase and finally the terrible, embarrassing and extremely loud, Shout Hiccups. I couldn't help the volume of them. It was completely involuntary. They were often the bane of my mother's existence during social gatherings, and if there was a way to cure them, Mother would have certainly found it.

"Nearly done," The nurse murmured.

"Grea-_hic_-t," I replied.

As the nurse patted my forehead dry, I fiddled with the watch, tracing the seam along the edge and paused at the tulip blossom clasp. I skimmed my fingers to the silver face of the pocket watch and followed the engraved barley-corn bushel. I didn't need to flick it open to see the fully bloomed red and yellow tulip painted on the inside. I had it memorized. I had received it as a coming of age gift seven months ago, on the morning of my birthday. Seven months, and I had already managed to ruin it. Mother would be heartbroken. She had had the watch especially made for me. I let out a mighty sigh and moved to jam the watch back into my pocket. First I had to find a way to return home, _then_ I could worry about Mother.

"What's that?" Cap's blonde brows were furrowed in concern. "Where did you get that?"

"Um," I began.

His hand shot out past the nurse and latched onto my right wrist. "Hand it over. Your personal property was supposed to be removed upon arrival. You could injure yourself with that!"

"Owwww," I whined and pulled at my wrist. "You're hurting me! That's my injured wrist."

"Oh, sorry." He jerked his hand back as if I had burnt him. Loki was right, Cap' was definitely guilty about injuring me. "Once Nurse Sarah has finished up, I'm going to have to complete a full search on you." Loki snickered and rolled his eyes. "And on you." Cap' pointed to Loki, who now wore a vague, uninterested look.

Nurse Sarah gently placed a bandage on my forehead and rummaged around the nearby cupboard for a wrist brace. My scraped knee and elbows had already been tended to, and now sported neon pink band-aids. "Ah, I'm all out of wrap." She sighed and placed the empty packaging and tiny scissors beside me on the medical bed. "I'll be right back, I have to go to the storage closet." She squeezed past Cap' in the doorway.

_"Hic."_

_Clipity_-_clop_. _Clipity_-_clop_.

Her small high-heeled pumps echoed down the hallway and back into the cramped medical ward. When she could no longer be heard, Cap' turned to us. "She's going to be awhile, so I'll do the searches now. Empty your pockets."

"No."

"Excuse me?" Cap' looked genuinely surprised by my response and Loki looked highly amused.

"No." I repeated more forcefully. "I'm not going to hand over my watch. It was a gift, and I'm not just going to give it away."

"It will be returned."

"When? I haven't seen hide nor hair of my bag since I've been here. By the sounds of things, as soon as you people find a way to remove these shackles," I held up my left hand. The silver cuffs glinted in the cold white light, and the chains jingled quietly. "I'll be shipped off to the psychiatric ward. Following this would most likely be some form of punishment for jumping in front of Loki to protect Heidi," I held up my right hand to stem Cap's response. "I know you don't believe me about that, and you don't have to. It doesn't really matter. But tell me, Cap', between my imprisonment, a lengthy visit to the psyche ward, and a possible permanent prison sentence, when exactly would my belongings be returned to me?"

Cap' opened and closed his mouth a few times, much like a fish out of water. He scratched the back of his head and cleared his throat before deciding on a response. "My name is Steve. Steve Rogers, not Cap'."

"Fine. Tell me, _Steve_, when would I get back my belongings?" I placed emphasise on his name and scowled. This effect was most mortifyingly ruined by the beginning of the Medium Hiccup phase. "_Hic_."

"I don't know," He admitted. "But I'll make sure it gets returned to you, no matter what. I promise."

"Where? Where would my belongings be kept in the meantime?"

"In the laboratory, along with his things." Steve jerked his head to Loki.

I pursed my lips and traced my thumb over my pocket watch one last time. As long as I knew where it was going, I could retrieve it before teleporting back to the In-Between. I gave a small shake of my head and shoved the watch at Steve. "I'm keeping you to your word. I expect this to be returned without a single finger smudge. And if you drop it, not even the three Fates could save you from my wrath." Steve gave me a strange look before grabbing the watch.

Steve had already removed the shackles around my ankles when we first arrived in the medical ward, which allowed me to kick my bulky boots off with ease. As I removed my boots and shook them out, Steve reached into the cupboard and produced a small cardboard box to keep my belongings in. I scooped up the wallet that fell from my rather ripe boot and placed it in the box. This was promptly followed by my laminated Assistant Grim Reaper certificate, a penny, and a coupon for a cafe in the In-Between. Content that my pockets and boots were empty, Steve moved on to Loki.

By the time Sarah returned to the small room, the box had become full of hidden weapons. I didn't know how someone could find a use for that many weapons, let alone conceal them all. Countless knives, daggers, and throwing stars spilled from the box, and more were being added by the second.

"Oh," Sarah exclaimed when she noticed the box.

"Continue with Leena, I'm going to be at this for a little while." Steve sighed.

"_Hic_."

"Right," She nodded and shoved a stray strand of grey hair from her tan face. She wrapped my wrist in gauze in silence, and cut the excess of the strip off with the tiny scissors.

As she turned away to return the gauze to the cupboard, I glanced over to Loki and Steve. Steve's usually perfectly combed hair was flopped over his forehead and a very harassed look was etched on his face. He also looked very preoccupied. I snatched up the small scissors from the bed and slipped them into my right boot. Too late did I notice Loki's piercing green gaze focused on me. I froze in place, panic filling me. If Loki told Steve what he just saw...

He gave a small smirk and dropped his gaze to the box. Inexplicably, it seemed that he had decided against it. I gave a small breath of relief.

The rest of the visit passed without incident, aside from a concerning increase in hiccup volume.

* * *

"Steve," I called out.

"Yes?" He turned around and walked the few steps back to the glass cage.

"Why are we here?"

"What do you mean?" Steve smoothed his golden hair back from his forehead. Oh, what glorious hair! I had always felt a resentment of those with golden locks. I was stuck with terribly dull, mud coloured hair, while they had dazzling crowns atop their heads. I never found that particularly fair.

"What did Loki do for him to be arrested like this? It must have been pretty bad for him to be kept in a cage." I waved my free hand around me. Loki was once again sprawled out on the cot with his eyes jammed shut, presumably sleeping. The trip back to the glass cage had been as filled with negativity as the trip to the medical unit. All of the bickering must have tired Loki out, since the first thing he did upon our return was flop down on the bench.

"He stole a special source of power from a top secret location on Earth. In the process of his thievery, he killed eighty people. Now he's threatening to enslave the Earth and all of humanity by using the source of power. He also did some terrible things beforehand, but I don't know all of the details." Steve explained in a tired voice.

"Oh. Was that what Director Fury was talking about? The Tessla, or Tetris I think he called it?"

"The Tesseract. Yes, that's right."

"Hm." I hummed in response and thought for a moment. "Where is the Tesseract?"

"That's why he's here. We don't know. We need to interrogate him about its location, but we can't if someone is strapped to his side."

"I see." I didn't want to see, but I did. They planned on torturing Loki for information, but they couldn't with a witness chained to him. Steve's good-guy act was just that; an act. No truly good person would torture someone for personal gain. "_Hic_." A large lump settled in my stomach. I was just as bad as them. I planned on using my stolen scissors to remove Loki's eye. I was just as fake as Steve. My upset stomach let out a loud grumble.

"Are you hungry?" Steve chuckled. "I can bring you something to eat."

"Um, yes please." Maybe food would help settle my stomach.

"I'll be back in a bit." Steve gave a fleeting smile and jogged down the metal walkway.

"Thank you," I called out after him. I reached for my watch in my pocket as a beacon of comfort. My hand dropped back down to my side limply. Oh. I had forgotten I didn't have it any more.

When I could no longer hear Steve's footsteps, I looked down to Loki and nudged his shoulder.

"What do you want?" His frosty question was paired with one cracked open eyelid. I propped my chin up with my fist and leaned against the glass wall.

"Why would you want to enslave them? It's like building a dam of paper mache across a raging river. Just as the water will dissolve the dam, the humans will revolt and destroy you. It's in their nature." I shrugged my shoulders. "They thrive best when left alone. Enslaving them will never work." I had pegged Loki as an intelligent, manipulative person with severe daddy issues. It didn't seem in his nature to use a plan doomed for failure.

He opened his other eye and studied my face for a few moments before answering. I felt trapped in his cold, blue gaze and a wave of relief washed over me when he closed them again. "Humans crave subjugation, it's the unspoken truth. In their mad dash for power, for identity, their life's joys are diminished. They were made to be ruled. The bright lure of freedom is life's greatest lie, and I plan on changing that."

"You want to free humanity from freedom?" I shook my head in confusion but refrained from making a rude comment. My mother had taught me not to judge others, and while I rarely listened to her advise, I found this a good situation to apply it to. As crazy as Loki seemed, something must have caused him to become that way. No one wakes up in the morning and thinks 'I'm going to take over the world today!' No. No one does that.

"I answered your question. Answer one of mine."

"_Hic_." I thought for a moment before nodding. Fair was fair. Considering the bleak future awaiting him (me gauging out his eye and torture from his captors), the least I could do was answer a question.

"Are you really a Grim Reaper? I saw the certificate in the box, but you could have made it yourself."

"Yes, I am. Technically, my official title is Apprentice Grim Reaper, but there's no need to split hairs. I would have- I mean, I _will _become a full Grim Reaper after I complete a certain amount of missions." I nodded sincerely. "The certificate is real, too. After I went through a screening process, I took an exam. When I received my passing marks in the mail, I was called into the Grim Reaper's headquarters to get my certificate." I shrugged and tried to stifle a hiccup, to no avail. "_Hic_."

"Why is that watch so important?"

"That's more than one question." I glanced down at him. Green eyes gazed back up at me. Strange, I could have sworn they were blue a moment ago. They also seemed softer than before. Instead of freezing me in place, these seemed to welcome me, encourage me to speak more. Very strange. "Um, but I suppose one more answer couldn't hurt. Like I said, the clock was a gift."

"And?"

"And what?"

"_Annnd_," Loki drawled out the word. "Who gave it to you? Why is it so important?"

I pursed my lips."Now, that's _definitely_ more than one question." A flicker of disappointment crossed his face before it smoothed out into a vague mask. He turned his head to the wall, and if I didn't know any better, I would have guessed he was pouting. I allowed my gaze to drift to the glass doors and avoided looking at Loki. "Hey, on a completely unrelated note, you know that watch that my mother gave me? Well, -_Hic_- she had it engraved and painted with symbols representing my namesake. It was a fluke of luck that she found a pocket watch with a tulip blossom as a clasp, and it inspired her to paint the open tulip on the inside and to have the barley-corn engraved on the front. I think that was pretty nice of her. Did your mother ever do something like that for you?"

Loki lifted his head and fixed his green orbs on me. I flicked my vision away from the doors and smiled warmly at him. Maybe living beings weren't much different from souls after all. Maybe all they needed was reassurance and warmth.

"Yes, she did."

"Yeah, aren't mother's great?" I grinned widely.

"What was your namesake? Barley-Corn Jane?" Loki suddenly burst out, sounding incredibly incredulous.

I laughed and shook my head. "That's a secret." I waggled my finger, sending the shackles jingling. "But it's _not_ Barley-Corn Jane."

"How cute. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are getting along."

Loki and I snapped our attention to the glass doors. Natasha stood there, looking very unimpressed and extremely uncomfortable with holding the large, orange, plastic tray piled high with sandwiches.

"_Hic_."

"Not many people can sneak up on me." Loki's face hardened to match his words as he slowly sat up from his relaxed position.

"Well, I did. So count me as an exception." Natasha shrugged a thin shoulder.

I could tell this was going to turn into a shouting match. Natasha had her jaw set in a stubborn jut and Loki had the same wild look in his sapphire eyes as when he gave his speech in Stuttgart. Wait...sapphire? I was positive they were green a second ago, and this time I knew it wasn't just my imagination. Before I lost my train of thought completely, I blurted out the question bubbling on the tip of my tongue. "Who's Macbeth?"

"He was a famous king. There was a play made about him by Shakespeare. He went insane in his conquest of power and ended up being murdered as revenge for his acts of cruelty and previous murders. I'm sure you had to read about it in school." She stepped closer to the glass cage and set the tray down on the floor.

"No. I already said, I was raised in the In-Between. We don't learn the same things as living beings. Anyway, who was Lady Macbeth?"

"Right, right. You're a 'Grim Reaper'. Forgot that." She rolled her eyes. "Lady Macbeth was Macbeth's wife. She went insane over the guilt of having encouraged the murder of the previous king, and she kills herself in the end of the play."

"..." I was mildly offended that she had just indirectly called me insane, and even more frustrated that she couldn't seem to understand Loki and I were _not_ in a relationship. I pushed it aside and continued to redirect her attention. The more we talked, the more likely she and Loki would become distracted and not fight. Probably. "What's the play called? Is it very popular? Is it very old?"

"It's just called "Macbeth", and yes, it's veeeeery popular. It's pretty old too, about four-hundred years."

"Hm." I nodded. How strange. My mother loved to find stories and plays from the Realm of the Living. If it was a very popular play, Mother would have surely found it and told us of it. I glanced over to Loki. If she hadn't told my brothers and me about Macbeth, there was a high possibility that she simply hadn't told us about Loki the god either. He could _actually_ be a god.

Lost in my thoughts, I hadn't noticed Natasha aim a question at Loki. I didn't catch all of it, but it involved Barton, whoever that was. Loki took a step toward Natasha and I trailed after him. Despite the small size of our cell, it was still large enough to have to follow Loki around to avoid a dislocated shoulder.

"I'd say I've expanded his mind."

"And once you've won? Once you've become king of the mountain, what will happen to his mind, then?"

Loki shrugged and gave a cold smirk.

Natasha pursed her full lips. "Free him. I have red in my ledger, I plan on wiping it out. I owe him a debt." She then launched into the tale of her sordid past, and how Barton had shown compassion toward her. I'm sure it was heart warming, but I really didn't care. I was much too distracted by a particular reflection on the glass wall.

I counted, and I counted again. There was one reflection that shouldn't have been there. There was me, Loki, Natasha in the room. Yet there was me, Loki, Natasha, and a blob reflected on the glass. A familiar, short, bald blob. I squinted and stepped closer to the glass. My eyes widened and I spun around to look behind me. Seeing nothing, I pressed my face against the glass and frantically searched for him outside of the cage. Nothing.

Inexplicably, Administrator Darius Kern's reflection had found its way to the Realm of the Living- sans body. As I stared wide eyed and ashen faced at his reflection, I could hear Loki shouting at Natasha.

"_Hic_."

Annnd, the Loud Hiccup phase had just begun. Great.


	6. Chapter 6- Help

AN: Hello again! I noticed I made a few tiny mistakes in the previous chapters that I will try to fix soon. Until then, I hope they aren't too distracting from the story. Also-I would like to place a permanent apology here for the lateness of this chapter, and most likely the following chapters as well. I get distracted incredibly easily, so focusing on writing a new chapter is...difficult. Regardless, I assure you, my beloved reader, I will not abandon this story. I shall vanquish the terrible demons of procrastination! Hi-ya! *karate chop in air* :3 hahaha, please enjoy the story and review if you have time. No pressure to, just if you feel up to it...*stares awkwardly at you through the computer screen until you click the review button* Yup...NO PRESSURE. [O.O]

OOOOoone last note: Loki is rather OOC in this story. To make sure Leena stays with Loki throughout the duration of the story (to have a plotline and whatnot) I had to create a semi-feasible scenario where he wouldn't kill the annoying girl chained to him. As such, there is a tiny possibility that a very, very small part of him is amused by Leena's antics. Also, Loki is a scheming son of a gun, and he always has a backup plan, so its pretty likely he'll find a way to use her to take over Earth...or maybe to takeover something else... * hints at upcoming plotline * I apologize for the ooc-ness, but I'll work on toning it down in the future :)

* * *

"Darius?" I whispered and gently placed my hand on the glass wall above his reflected arm. "Is that you?"

"_SOB_. Boo-hoo. _SNIFFLE_."

Natasha and Loki had finished their little conversation, which somehow resulted in Loki calling her an interesting insult that I filed away for future use. This, in turn, had somehow reduced Natasha to a trembling, sobbing, snot-bubble producing mess. I hadn't been paying attention, so her emotional distress might have been caused by something said earlier in their conversation. Either way, I didn't care. I had much more important things on my mind. "You're a monster!" She spat out the insult without turning around to face Loki, and sniffled loudly again.

Completely oblivious to their spat, I felt a large, goofy grin creep across my face. "Is that really you, sir? Or is my concussion acting up again? _Hic_." I whispered urgently and ignored my hiccup.

Instead of replying, Administrator Darius Kern scowled deeply.

"Oh no, _you_ brought the monster." Loki sneered in reply to Natasha. Almost immediately, her thin shoulders stopped shaking with violent tremors and she straitened up from her hunched, defeated slouch. She wiped the back of her hand against her running nose and abruptly spun around to face the glass cage.

"Banner. That's your play." Her voice held no indication of her previous sobs. "You plan on using Bruce Banner to release the Hulk." Her slightly snot covered hand shot up to her ear to a small, black earpiece. "Lock down the lab, keep Banner there in isolation. Loki plans on using him to destroy us." She turned on her heel and strode down the metal walkway away from us. As if suddenly remembering something, she paused and turned back. "Thank you for your cooperation." She chimed sweetly before sashaying away.

Loki stood gawking after her retreating back. He looked incredibly shocked and confused on how she could have deduced his plan from one sentence. If I wasn't preoccupied with my disembodied boss, I would have been just as confused. I also would have been outraged that she left without handing over the tray of sandwiches. The orange plastic tray sat on the metal floor, mocking my empty stomach from the other side of the glass doors.

I decided to worry about that at a later time. For now, I had Darius to deal with.

"Sir," I hissed and leaned closer. "Sir, I need to return home. Something happened during the mission. Things got complicated and I lost the soul I was assigned to. I need to return to the In-Between to regroup and formulate a plan."

"Are you...Are you talking to the wall?" Loki slowly turned to me and cocked his head to one side.

"I know this one got messed up, but I didn't fail it! If I could just have my powers back, I could fix this. I need to enact revenge against Loki," I jerked my shackled left hand to Loki, nearly hitting him in the face. "He killed Heidi! I don't know how to do it, but I need to enact revenge against him, somehow. That's what Heidi said. I can help her move on, then I can find Heinrich." My voice was slowly rising into higher and higher octaves and into a louder and louder volume. I was waving my hands around to emphasize my point, causing Loki to duck and swerve my flailing limbs. "Please sir, I need more time. And my powers back. And I need to get home. But let's just focus on the time and powers part for now." I nodded fervently.

"What is wrong with you?" Loki spat out as he bobbed his head to the right in order to avoid an accidental blow to his sharp cheek bone. "Who are you talking to?"

"My boss, Administrator Darius." I explained as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "Can't you see him? Anyway, what do you say, sir? What's going to happen?"

Instead of replying, Darius shook his head and jabbed an index finger to me insistently.

"Sir? I don't understand." I shook my head gently and furrowed my brows in confusion. Loki stared at me as if I had sprouted a second head. Or as if I had declared jell-o to be the preferred food of frost giants. (everyone knows they would never be able to eat it without it freezing, and frozen jell-o just isn't the same)

Darius silently sighed and rolled his eyes. He took a step sideways until he was standing on the glass doors. He pointed down at Loki, and then back to me. I shrugged in confusion and squinted in concentration. Darius slapped his forehead in frustration before franticly jabbing a gnarled finger at Loki and at me again. He was standing right behind Loki, and I couldn't see him very well. I craned my neck to see around Loki's tall frame.

"Do you mind?" I snapped at Loki and flapped my hands to shoo him away.

"Yes, I do mind. What are you talking about? No one else is here. It's just you, me and an entire room of guards observing us through the..the...whatever they are called."

"Security cameras?" I offered.

"Yes, those." Loki looked mildly irritated by my interjection. "How hard did you hit your head? Are you hallucinating?"

"No!" I indignantly shouted, before conceding with a small shrug of my shoulders. "Well, I might be. But it doesn't really matter. I'm trying to find out what my boss wants me to do. Whether he's imaginary or not, I need all the help I can get on how to return home!"

Darius waved his hand over Loki's shoulder to attract my attention. "Uhg, will you please just," I reached out and shoved my left hand against his face. "MOVE OUT OF MY WAY." I pushed with all of my strength, which was apparently more than I had originally assumed.

_Thud_.

_Sqweee_.

Loki slammed into the glass wall. Well, more specifically, his _face_ slammed into the glass wall. The rest of him remained nearly the same distance as before from the wall. At least I could see Darius better with Loki's head ducked down and smooshed against the wall, even if his body still blocked a large part of my view.

"Sir, I don't understand. You want me to...to what? Something with Loki and me, right?"

"Mwah hmmph fuu." Loki mumbled with his face firmly pressed against the glass wall. I jerked my vision away from Darius and glared at Loki. With a small start I realized I was still shoving his face against the wall. I lessened the pressure on the back of his head, but refused to let go. He kept getting in the way and I needed to focus all of my attention on Darius, without distractions in the form of a tall, insane god.

I switched my attention back to Darius. "..." His mouth moved as if he were speaking, yet no sound reached my ears. Strange.

"Huh?"

"..." He violently pointed to me, and then to Loki. Then he pointed to himself and shook his head in a highly exaggerated fashion. Back to gesturing at Loki and myself, now paired with an exaggerated nod and thumbs-up sign. He lifted up a fist and slammed it down on the palm of his other hand. He lifted up a finger and shook it back in forth, all while shaking his head. The blank look on my face incited his temper, causing the familiar vein to throb in his temple. He threw his hands up the air in defeat before turning around and disappearing in a small puff of reflected smoke.

"No!" I screamed and slammed my hands against the glass doors. In my frenzy, I had let go of Loki's head. His surprisingly soft hair stuck up in tuffs where my hand had pressed. As I slammed my hands against the doors again and again, Loki smoothed out his hair and straightened up from his semi-slouched position.

"No! Come back, please come back! I promise I will do better, I give you my word, my vow. Just give me another chance! I just need to enact revenge against Loki, then Heidi will move on, and I can start looking for Heinrich. Please," I vaguely noted a salty taste in my mouth. My cracked lips stung. My vision swam. The scene before me blurred into unrecognizable, misty shapes. "Please. Please, come back," I slid down onto the floor into an undignified heap. I reached up to push away a strand of hair tickling my cheek. My hand came away wet. I was crying. Well, sobbing hysterically, actually.

This was it. Darius had returned to tell me I couldn't return home. He had tried to tell me to stay. He was probably telling me not to bother with revenge, that it wouldn't work. Probably. He could have been telling me about how paper beats rock in game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Just like with the guidebook, I had to guess at what he was trying to say.

Oh, I was so tired of guessing. So tired of my wimpy nature. So tired of my bad luck.

So tired.

I rested my heavy head on my knees and hugged my arms around my body. I hadn't slept in nearly forty-eight hours, and my tears were causing my tired eyes to sting. I jammed them shut and tried to forget where I was. I tried to forget the suffocating, recycled air of the glass cage. It wasn't foul air, it was just...unpleasant. Just like Loki. He wasn't terrible. He was just unpleasant.

_"Hic_."

I could hear Loki shuffling around behind me. He couldn't move very far away from me, and we were too far from the bench for him to be able to sit comfortably. To my shock, instead of insulting me, or dragging me closer to the bench, Loki sat on the floor beside me.

I kept my head buried in my arms and refused to look up. He was probably furious at me for shoving him. And for pressing his face against the wall. I was certain that if I looked up I would find a smear in the shape of Loki's face on the wall.

That thought nearly made me smile. Oh, if only The Fates had been kinder to me, I wouldn't be in this mess. If only they could help me. My sobs slowly faded away as I slipped out of consciousness, and into a blissful dream world free of my bad luck.

* * *

I dreamt. It wasn't a happy dream. It wasn't horrible either. Just like everything else surrounding me, it was just unpleasant.

I was back home, in my family's small house in the In-Between. The hypnotic scent of lilacs hung in the air, and soft white light filtered through the curtained windows. I could hear my mother's voice somewhere in the house. A strange swishing sound echoed around. It sounded so familiar... I scrambled through my brain, but couldn't place what the sound was. I could also hear the whispers of my two brothers drift on the cold air, which I decided to focus on instead of the mysterious sound.

"Jack? Robin? Mother? Where are you?" I tried to walk forward. My legs left like lead, and the shockingly cold air felt heavy. I finally managed to trudge out of the kitchen and down the narrow hallway connecting to the living room and the bedrooms.

The first door I passed belonged to my mother's bedroom. Mother's voice wafted through the thick, wooden door.

"Mother?" I called out. I reached out a hand and traced my fingers against the painted flowers flourishing above the handle. Upon my touch, another voice joined my mother's.

"Get your head out of the clouds and grow the hell up! Do you think money grows on trees?" A deep baritone barked. "I don't know why I bothered to come home tonight. All you do is nag and hold your hand out for money."

"Nagging? _Nagging_? As your wife, I have every damn right to ask where you've been. And, as the only person around here who cares about our children, I have every damn right to ask for money for them." Mother's soft voice sharply retorted.

I recognized this argument. It was the same one Mother and Father had had on the night Father walked out permanently. He had been disappearing for days on end prior to this, and seeing as he was the sole provider of the family, his disappearances were very concerning. No father, no money. No money, no food.

On his sporadic returns he would always blow up if asked where he was. If questioned, he would accuse the questioner of nagging. If asked for money, he would accuse the asker of being a mooch. It was always best to leave him alone and fish out his work cheque from his clothes once he was sleeping.

Their voices faded away until they were no longer audible. My hand hovered over the door knob, contemplating opening the door. My arm fell back down to my side, and I turned away from the door. I didn't want to see what was behind it.

I continued walking until I came to the next bedroom door. Like her own door, this one had also been painted by Mother. A tall bean stock creeped up past the hinges. At the top of the bean stock, two thin boys stood. A single fist was propped against the shorter figure's hip and piles of golden eggs spilled around his feet. Beside him, the other figure clutched a bow in one hand and a bag of gold in the other. They were meant to represent my brothers, Jack and Robin.

Around the edges of the door, flowers grew. In reality, the flowers were all bloomed and flourishing. In my dream however, the flowers were all wound up into small buds, each one pulsing gently as if breathing. A flower larger than the rest was painted in the centre of the door. Like the bordering flowers, it was tightly closed and pulsating.

I reached out a hand to trace the large red flower bud. At my touch, the flower sprang open to reveal a miniature girl standing in the middle of the flower. Her brown hair was twisted into a bun atop her head, and a goofy grin graced her features. It represented me, and looked the same as always. The major defining difference was that instead of wearing the usual flowing gown, the little painting wore the same black jumpsuit as my current work uniform.

I reached out to touch the door again, curious if it would change again. This time, the door swung open soundlessly, revealing the bedroom I shared with my brothers. The scene before me was peaceful, and part of another memory.

A much younger version of myself, Jack, and Robin sat on top of my fluffy, pink bed. Their beds were on either side of my own, and sported plush yellow and blue quilts. Mother sat on Jack's blue bed with a huge, heavy storybook perched on her knee.

"Now, what story do you want to hear for bedtime?" Her brown eyes sparkled with the delight of being able to spin a fantastical tale for us.

"A name story," Jack chimed up and rubbed his button nose.

"Yeah, tell us about our name sakes." Robin bounced on the bed, sending his already messy brown locks into further disarray.

"Please," I added.

"Alright. What story do you want?"

"We heard about Robin Hood last night, so let's hear Leena's or Jack's." Robin suggested.

"I don't like hearing about Jack and the Beanstalk before bed. The giants frighten me." Jack's angular shoulders shook in a shudder.

"Oh Jack, the giants can't hurt you. Don't worry." Mother gave a soft smile and opened up the story book. "So, that leaves Leena's story then, doesn't it?" We all nodded enthusiastically. "Ahem, once upon a time, there lived an old woman. She was very lonely and wanted to have a child. One day, she went to the local witch and asked for her advice. The witch gave her a barley-corn seed and told her to plant it. The old woman was confused, but paid the woman and went home and planted the seed. To her surprise, the barley-corn seed shot up into a red tulip bud. 'Oh my,' the old woman exclaimed. As she said this, the tulip opened up to reveal a small girl no larger than a thumb sitting in the centre of the flower. 'What a precious girl! I'll name her Thumbelina.' And so, the old woman became best of friends with Thumbelina and raised her as a daughter."

Mother continued telling the story of Thumbelina, my name sake. Being so fascinated by the stories, myths, and legends of the creatures occupying the Realm of the Living, Mother had decided to use them as inspiration for her children's names. This, of course, resulted in terrible teasings from the other children. They especially enjoyed tormenting me on how unfitting my name was.

I was a tall girl. By human standards, I was nearing the six feet range. In no way did I meet the description of of my tiny namesake. After bearing the cruel nature of bored school children for three years, I stopped using my name. Thumbelina no longer existed, the only remainder of her was my pocket watch. Now, I was Leena. Tall, bad luck filled, Leena.

As I finished my musings, I realized that something was missing. My family's voices were no longer audible, although the scene in the room continued before me. Like at her door before, Mother's voice slowly faded away until I couldn't hear her anymore. It felt as if I was watching a television set on mute.

_Ka_-_chuk_.

_Whoosh_.

_Ka_-_chuk_.

The strange whooshing sound was now paired with a clicking noise. I turned away from my bedroom and peered down the hallway. The only place it could be coming from was the bathroom, or the living room.

_Bang_.

As I took a step toward the living room, my door slammed shut. Creepy. I shrugged it off and continued struggling against the thick air towards the living room.

_KA_-_CHUCK_.

_WHOOSH_.

_KA_-_CHUCK_.

_WHOOSH_.

The closer I went, the louder it became. Without the voices of my mother and brothers muffling it, it was much more pronounced than before.

Anxiety rose in my chest, and I feared this was going to turn into a nightmare. This fear was not dispersed when I discovered the source of the sound.

Three old women crouched around a giant loom in the middle of the living room. The furniture usually occupying the room was nowhere in sight, and dirt covered the floor instead of carpet. As I stepped into the living room, the walls dissolved into mist. Just outside of the mist, tall, dark pillars disappeared into a foggy sky. Upon closer inspection, I dimly noticed that the pillars were trees. Huge, thick tress. It would take three of me to wrap my arms fully around one.

KA-CHUCK.

WHOOSH.

KA-CHUCK.

I watched as the three old crones wove with the loom. Finally, the familiarity of the sound made sense. After Father had left, Mother was forced to work at the local factory weaving rugs to sell at the market. My brothers and I often went there after school to wait for her shift to end. Instead of finding the sound reassuring as I had as a child, I now found the sound disturbing. It made the hairs on my arms stand on end, and a cold chill ran down my spine. The impending pressure of anxiety laid heavy on my chest, and the irrational urge to turn tail and run was very evident.

My anxiety slowly turned into terror as I studied the three old crones crouched before the ancient machine. The youngest of the three could only be located by the black strands of hair streaking through her thin, greasy, locks. Her head was bent low, preventing me from seeing her face. Her humped shoulders rolled each time she flicked the shuttle through the loom to the other side.

My gaze followed the shuttle over to the second ancient woman. Her head was slightly raised, and while her thick curtain of grimy white hair covered most of her face, I was still able to see that she was easily the eldest of the three. Quite possibly the eldest of all humanity, in fact. Her extreme age was so visible that I had a distant wondering of how she could possibly still be alive.

The third crone's cruel cackle drew my attention to her.

"Oh, what fun!" her shrill voice cracked through the air. I swallowed thickly past the lump in my throat, and tried to suppress a shudder. Her back was to me, but I could easily see her stumpy, blood and dirt caked fingers fly across the loom with more speed than ever physically possible. Her yellow and filthy nails slashed at threads woven through the tapestry, severing them with a finality that I could feel in my bones. Other threads she rolled between her fingers, creating a single thread where two or three once stood.

"Smells like we have a visitor," the youngest of the trio croaked and lifted her head to sniff the air. Her action flicked her hair away from her face and revealed her heavily lined, grey face.

"Oh!" I let out an involuntary inhalation of breath when I saw her eyes. Or rather, the lack of the aforementioned organs. Two pink sockets stood out on her dirty face. A cruel sneer graced her features, revealing two lone black stubs of teeth.

"Sounds like we have a visitor," The eldest rumbled deep in her chest. She turned her own pair of sightless, empty sockets in my direction. Her deathly pale, gaunt face was dominated by a hooked nose. Her thin lips parted in a grimace of sorts to display bright red, empty gums.

"Looks like we have a visitor," The middle crone shrieked in delight and swiveled her head without stilling her hands from their work. A single, milky, eye locked me in place. Like the eldest crone, this one also had a large, beaky nose shoved onto her wrinkled face. Less than five rotten teeth grew in her mouth.

I was very glad I was far away enough to be spared their stench. The state of their ragged attire and general lack of hygiene warned me of how bad it would be.

"Look here," The three crones spoke at once. "Look at the loom. Do you see it? Can you see? _Look_."

My feet were as firmly attached to the ground as the trees surrounding us. All of my muscles felt locked in place, and I realized with a new wave of dread that my chance to run away had already passed. My gaze drifted to the fabric laid out on the loom and became as stuck as the rest of me.

"Do you see?" The eldest crone hissed in encouragement.

I stared at the grey, bland fabric. I would have shrugged if I could move.

"Look!" The middle crone demanded in a shriek. I squinted in concentration and slowly began to discern different coloured thread woven throughout the shapeless cloth. A strand of golden thread, and a forest green thread laying beside it seemed to call out to me. I followed the line of the green strand up, until it abruptly turned ice blue. A very small way further up on the cloth, the blue thread hung loose and disconnected from the loom.

"Fix it."

"Fix what you see."

"Fix it, and you will be forgiven."

My tongue was firmly glued to the roof of my mouth. Oh, how I longed to ask what in all of the Nine Realms they were talking about. Quickly followed, of course, with a polite inquiry as to what happened to their teeth. I could understand that they could have lost their eyes in an accident, but the blackened and missing teeth truly confused me. Seeing as this was _my_ dream, I found myself well within my rights to ask any strange question that crossed my mind. Alas, my mouth refused to move.

_WEE_-_HUR._

_WEE_-_HUR._

A strange alarm filtered through the foggy forest, and interrupted my attempt to speak.

"Hmm," the youngest if the trio grunted. "It's time to go. Heed our advise, girl. You asked for our aid, you best not ignore it. Fix the thread of fate."

Finding that I once again held control over my eyelids, I blinked and looked away from the loom. This couldn't actually be happening. I had heard thousands of stories of The Three Fates that keep track of every living being's life. They were the ones that had mysteriously enchanted the books the Grim Reapers used as a data base for all living creatures. They determined what lot would be given in life, and how that life would end. The rest of the creature's life was up to the individual, although The Fates had been known to lend a hand in strange circumstances. It seemed that I counted as a strange circumstance. "Thank you." I whispered.

* * *

_WEE_-_HUR._

When I opened my eyes again, it was to awaken back in the holding cell of the airship.

_WEE_-_HUR._

The strange alarm blared loudly in the background and split into my mind. As my head throbbed dully, I noted that the pain was less. It seemed my concussion was slowly healing. I rubbed my sleep encrusted eyes and yawned widely.

"Finally decided to join the waking world?" Loki's cold voice drifted over to me.

"I had the strangest dream," I began.

"I don't care," He snapped back at me. He was obviously in a terrible mood from being forced to sit on the floor with me. Rather than addressing his irrational irritation, I decided pretend he had replied in a pleasant manner. Perhaps he had asked "Oh, and what was the dream about?" Yes, that reply seemed pleasant and kind.

"I was back home, and there were The Three Fates." I continued on, completely ignoring the deadly glare I knew he was giving me. "They said I have to fix a thread or something. So, keep your eyes out for a needle and thread laying around somewhere, I apparently need them." I gave a small smile to show that I was joking before glancing up from my sprawled out position on the floor. I found him studying me thoughtfully with his head cocked to one side, the deep scowl present moments ago had vanished.

_WEE_-_HUR_.

"I can't understand if you're insane or actually a Grim Reaper," he quietly murmured. His green eyes glinted in the sterile white lights.

"For the last time," I stood slowly and stretched out as well as I could with one hand chained to a sitting Loki. "I'm a Grim Reaper. I'm not insane. Although, that infernal alarm is going to drive me insane if it doesn't stop soon. What is that alarm for, anyway?"

_WEE_-_HUR_.

_BA_-_BASH_.

A huge crash accompanied the alarm this time, causing the entire airship to shake.

Instead of replying to me, Loki's eyes narrowed and shifted to a cold blue hue. He abruptly stood from the floor and smoothed down the leather of his armour. "What was that?" I shrieked as I stumbled.

"I've decided that you're not worth killing, _yet_. You amuse me, and if you are truly what you claim to be, you may be of use to me at a later time." He stepped closer to the glass doors of the cell. "And that is my army come to free me," A cruel smirk stretched his lips, "and of course, free the beast to rampage and destroy this pathetic set of headquarters." _  
_

The rage and anger towards him that I had been shoving away simmered at the surface, threatening to burst through. I _amused_ him? How dare he say that! He destroyed my life and left me stranded in literally another dimension, then he had the gall to patronize me? And what beast was he talking about? On the ride the the airship, one man had mentioned "The Hulk." Was that the "beast" Loki referred to? Who was the Banner that Natasha mentioned? My line of mental questions slowly cooled my flare of rage and distracted me from my irritation. What did the threads The Fates showed me represent? The green shade of the thread was hauntingly familiar, but I couldn't place where I had seen it before.

"Fine. Until I find out how to fix this entire mess, I need to keep you in my sights. Kill me, or let me live," I shrugged "it doesn't matter what you decide. I'll just come back and haunt you until I've done what has to be done. It's as simple as that."

Loki suddenly burst into mocking laughter. "See? You find ways to amuse me. I find that useful."

I huffed but kept silent. I had a strange feeling that both Darius and The Three Fates wanted me to stay with Loki. So, I would listen. I would stick with him, and hopefully act as a buffer for some of his destructive plans. And hopefully, my terrible streak of bad luck wouldn't act up. Of course, this small bubble of hope was popped when the Shouting Stage of my hiccups began.

_HIC_.

It echoed loudly through the small glass chamber. Damn. I guess luck wasn't on my side after all.


	7. Chapter 7- Escape

AN: Again, I would like to apologize for the gap between updates. Please enjoy, and continue to bear with my awful punctuality :_)_ Also-I know Loki is a bit OOC. Canon Loki would have murdered Leena long, long ago. I'm rather fond of Leena, and don't wish to kill her off (yet). I'm sorry, and I tried to tone it down. Just remember, Loki is full of schemes. If he sees a use for someone, he would certainly keep them close by, and mostly safe from harm. Thank you so much for reading, please enjoy, and feel free to review! =)

* * *

_WEE_-_URR_.

The alarm continued to scream in the background, now accompanied by the not-so distant shouts of crew-members. I stood with my boot-clad feet planted firmly on the metal floor, desperate for any traction on the dangerously tilting surface. After each distant explosion reached my ears, the floor would tilt more and more. If this kept up, I would have to brace against Loki to prevent sliding into the glass wall.

I glanced up at Loki and tried to guess what his reaction would be if I latched onto his arm. By the wild look in his eyes and strange set of his jaw, it would not be a pleasant one. He looked much more disheveled than before, and the heavy black bags under his icy blue eyes brought a question to mind. He had been laying down for nearly the entire time we were imprisoned in the glass cage. If he wasn't sleeping, then what was he doing? He surely couldn't have been just sitting there staring at me.

I opened my mouth and nearly asked that question before heavy steps interrupted me.

_THU_-_THUMP_. _THU_-_THUMP_. _THU_-_THUMP_.

Three men came into view as they ran along the metal walk-way. "Sir!" The three men shouted before skidding to a halt before the doors and saluting Loki.

"Good, you're here. Open the door," Loki ordered in a demanding tone.

"Yes, sir," The shortest of the men stepped toward the control panel.

_Beep_. _Klack_. _Clickity_-_click_. _Beep_.

Within a few moments, the glass doors slid open. Loki strode out of the cell, seemingly unaffected by the uneven floor. I tottered along behind him, and mentally begged my boots to keep me upright.

Loki came to an abrupt halt before the three men. After a silent and rather awkward pause, Loki raised an eyebrow expectantly. "Well?" He snapped.

The two taller men furrowed their brows in confusion, while the shortest man looked blankly on ahead. The lighter haired tall man gathered his wits first, and cleared his throat.

"Ahem," He began, "the mission has been successful. The air-ship has suffered severe damage, and repairs are extremely unlikely. The crew has been divided, although the exact location of specific team members is unknown. Five generators have been-"

"Yes, fantastic," Loki cut off the man's report sarcastically. "Tell me about this later. Where is my scepter?"

"Sir?"

"My scepter. The spear. The weapon I carry with me at _all_ _times_." Loki narrowed his eyes and huffed. "Where is it?"

"Um, we don't...we don't exactly..." The darker haired tall man stammered.

"Yeah, about that..." The shortest man rubbed his chin nervously.

"We don't have it." The lighter haired tall man stated bluntly. "We were under the impression you would attain it yourself. We tracked the beacon signal to the front of the ship, which sustained a significant amount of damage. It's too dangerous to send anyone into the unstable area. Seeing as you're immortal..." He trailed off, obviously telling Loki to go get his own damn spear if it was so special.

Loki's already thin lips pressed into an impossibly thin line. "I don't care if the front part of the ship is infected with the black plague. I want my spear. I need my spear. You are going to get my spear. Do I make myself clear, Barton?" His voice took a deadly tone, and held unmentionable threats.

The light haired man, Barton, raised his chin defiantly and locked his electric blue eyes with Loki's icy ones. The cogs of my mind slowly began to turn, and the vague recollection of the name "Barton" swam to the surface. I had heard it recently...but where?

The shortest man turned to face the silent stand off between Barton and Loki, revealing his own set of identical electric blue eyes. A small jolt ran down my spine as I realized the new male trio all shared the same unnatural, blank, blue eyes. Creepy.

_KA_-_BOOOM_.

A particularly violent explosion tore through the air-ship, causing them to break eye contact.

"We don't have much time, sir. It would be best if we _all_ went to the front, rather than just a single person," The darker haired tall man advised.

Without a single word of acknowledgement, Loki spun on his heels and yanked impatiently on our shackles. I huffed a sigh before trudging on after him along the metal walkway. It seemed Loki had decided to listen to what could only be described as his henchmen without his signature sarcasm.

With a pang of chagrin and hunger, I peered over my shoulder at the orange tray of sandwiches still outside the cell. My gaze drifted behind me just in time to see the tall dark haired henchman step on the tray, and with a twist of his heel, send the presumably delicious sandwiches smeared over the floor. It seemed like such a waste of food, and a wave of frustration crashed over me.

I immediately mentally vowed to scold whoever had stepped on them. Didn't he know the severity of wasting food? Probably not. His protruding gut indicated he hadn't spent a single day hungry before. I didn't have time to scold now, so I pushed the plan and my frustration to the side until I had an opportunity. After experiencing so many frustrations in the past day or so, I found it harder than usual to just push it aside.

Only a firm bite to my inner cheek kept me from boiling over when the shortest henchman pointed to the sandwich smear and gave a cold laugh. The harsh sound was a strange mockery of amusement and the wasted food. The dark haired man stared blankly at the short henchman before sluggishly joining in on the mirthless laughter. Their hollow chuckles drew the attention of Barton, who impatiently spun on his heel and marched back to the two lingering lackies. Before I could see what Barton did to the two henchmen, Loki dragged me through the metal doors leading to the same corridor we travelled through when we first arrived on the ship. A sound suspiciously similar to two slaps were heard from behind us, and two exclamations of pain promptly followed.

A small smile tugged on my lips in satisfaction of the two henchmen's fate, and a mild respect for Barton grew. Likewise, a great dislike for the other two thugs flourished. Barton exited the room with the two men trailing behind and rubbing their heads. They quickly caught up to our swift pace, and arranged themselves in a semi circle around us.

As we walked past smouldering piles of metal and debris from the mysterious explosions, I attempted to shift through the information I had previously filed away for future use. Perhaps I would remember why Barton seemed so important if I concentrated. Of course, as soon as that thought crossed my mind, I was presented with a distraction.

"_HIC_."

"Ahem," I softly coughed in an attempt to stifle my echoing hiccup. Loki spared me a freezing glare and sneer as proof that my attempt failed.

"I can easily change my mind and stop that incessant hiccuping permanently. Do you understand?" He growled and yanked roughly on the chain to emphasize his point. I nodded mutely and decided that keeping silent was the best option here. Satisfied with my response, Loki spun on his heel and increased his march to a pace I could barely keep up with.

I ducked under a wad of sparking wires hanging from the ceiling, and recalled the conversation I originally had with Darius. He hadn't wanted anyone to know that he had failed in his job to properly train an Apprentice Grim Reaper, but he hadn't mentioned a Barton in the conversation. Of the thirteen souls I had tried (and failed) to bring to peace, none were named Barton, or had ever mentioned a Barton. I grasped in my mind for the answer, and nearly found it. Maybe someone in the helicopter on the way to the air-craft had been named that? Or maybe someone had mentioned it on the air-craft?

"Natasha!" I exclaimed, and shot up from my slightly slouched position, banging my head on the collapsed ceiling in the process. Loki heaved a tired sigh and signalled for his henchmen to stop marching. Loki opened his mouth, and promptly snapped it shut.

"Good, you remember my name. It's nice to see when someone pays attention," A familiar female voice chimed and successfully interrupted whatever scathing remark Loki had planned.

"Ouch," I winced and clutched at my head before slowly turning to face the speaker. "Natasha?" I was rather surprised to hear her after mentioning her name. Perhaps the saying, "speak of the devil," was much more accurate than one would originally assume?

"I have more pressing things to deal with than you, Lady Macbeth. I don't care how you got out of your cell, but you're definitely not getting off of this ship." Natasha's sarcastic voice drifted from my left, promptly followed by a scuffle to my right.

Loki, his henchmen, and I were standing in a poorly lit, narrow hallway surrounded by rubble and a large portion of collapsed wall. If she were to my left, she could be perched behind a stack of collapsed ceiling panels. If she were to my right, well, she could be literally anywhere. The large portion of demolished wall led to what appeared to be a storage room full of overturned crates.

"Listen, we technically didn't escape from our cell. We were let out. _Biiiig_ difference," I nodded and hoped she wasn't planning on attacking. I was stronger than the average human, but something told me that Natasha was anything but average. I didn't feel up to a fight, and knowing Loki, he would probably try to use me as a body shield. Or as a weapon. He could probably throw me pretty far, which could only end up with me sporting a few cracked ribs.

"Barton, deal with the pest," Loki demanded with a flick of his shackled hand.

"Yes, sir," Barton took a threatening step toward me. With a flick of his wrist, a knife shot out from a mysterious pocket in his vest and into his white knuckled fist. His dead electric blue eyes were hollow as his pale lips stretched into a sneer. But no, they were more than just dead eyes. There was no promise of a life ever having occupied the body. These were much, much more than just dead; they were soulless. Cold claws gripped my guts in fear, and I gulped in dread of my present demise.

"NO! No, no," Loki sounded slightly panicked. "Not _this_ pest. The _other_ one." He jabbed a thumb to the storage room.

"Yes, sir," Without missing a beat, Barton continued his threatening march past me. I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding and unclenched my fists. If I hadn't known better, it almost sounded like Loki did the same.

Barton stepped over the remaining crumbling wall on the right, and was promptly kicked back into the hallway by a red and black blur. Natasha dropped down from the top of the wall, and shoved her grimy red locks away from her face, sending a small cloud of wall plaster into the air.

Barton jumped up from his crumpled position and charged at the smaller woman. She effortlessly kicked him away again. And again. And again.

"Wow. He really doesn't know when to quit, does he?" The words left my mouth before I could stop them. I gulped and hoped no one heard me. Of course, everyone had.

"Listen to Lady Macbeth, Barton. Know when to stop." A slightly winded Natasha puffed.

Barton sent a punch to her ribs. She dodged as gracefully as an elderly cat, before scurrying back into the storage room. Barton followed after her in a full run and disappeared from view.

"Sir, we should move along. If we wait any longer, the unstable section could collapse." The tall dark haired henchman advised. Mr. Food-Waster was my official mental title for the awful man, although I could think of quite a few more colourful terms to describe him. I bit my cheek to stop myself from mimicking Mr. Food-Waster, and turned to see a crate being thrown from the storage room. No one else seemed to care about the scuffle between Natasha and Barton, so I turned my attention back to the conversation.

"Of course," Loki muttered before jogging down the hallway. The chain pulled taut as I slowly fell behind.

"Um..." I spoke up in a small, squeaking voice. "Shouldn't we be going in the _opposite_ direction from the collapsing section of the aircraft? _HIC_."

"We would be, if they had done their jobs," Loki spat bitterly and gestured to his henchmen.

"Oh," I was too winded to reply in full. We had broken into a run by then, and my lungs couldn't handle speaking, hiccuping, and breathing at the same time.

"RAAAAAAAWR,"

"Uh...What was that?" I puffed and skidded to a halt with a _skree_ of my boots.

"Probably just the metal buckling," The shorter henchman gasped as he ran past me.

"Just the...JUST the metal buckling?" I couldn't believe my ears. "That sounds rather dangerous! As a waiver of sorts, I would like to inform you all that I'm not immortal, and if I die in here, I _will_ come back and haunt you." I warned and began running again before Loki could become impatient.

"Heh heh," The dark haired henchman chuckled.

"I'm not jo- OH HOLY THREE FATES, THAT IS _NOT_ METAL BUCKLING!" I cut off my retort with a scream as we rounded the corner to be presented with a wall full of gaping holes, the empty blue sky visible through them. The words "Research Laboratory" were plastered on the metal. And there, standing before that sign, was a giant green monster.

"Shhh!" Loki furiously shushed me and yanked us back around the corner we had just come from.

"What is tha-mphmm," Loki shoved a hand against my mouth. I stepped away from his hand and opened my mouth again, only to find myself crushed to his chest with his hand clamped back onto my mouth.

"I said, _be_ _quiet_," He whispered into my ear. "I'll explain after. All you need to know is to avoid the beast. I'd rather not attract its attention." I nodded mutely, and vaguely wondered if his hands were clean. A small shudder ran down my spine at the prospect of having germy hands rubbed over my face.

"AHHHH!" The shortest henchman ran past us, quickly followed by a dark blur that I could only assume was the other henchman. Their shrieks of terror echoed down the hallway.

Loki and I stared wide eyed in horror after their retreating backs, and my dislike for them immediately turned into hatred.

"RAAAAAAWWRRR!" a bone shaking roar split the air. The fear of contracting some sort of Asgardian disease promptly fled my mind, and was replaced with the terror of the extremely immediate danger.

Silence followed the animalistic exclamation. After twelve heartbeats, I decided that the emerald monster must have decided against chasing after Mr. Food-Waster and Shorty. As such, I deemed the situation safe to quietly retreat back down the narrow, dark, and rather unstable corridor. Unfortunately, Loki did not share my opinion.

He remained as still and as stiff as a statue, with his bacteria covered hand smothering any attempt to share my afformentioned opinion. And so, I used the "get your grubby hands off of my face" method that always worked with my brothers. I licked his hand.

"Ew!" Loki shrilly exclaimed and shot his hand away. He stared down in horror at the slobber I left on his appendage. Content to have my mouth free once more, I wiggled out of his grip and took a healthy sized step away. He turned his wide green eyes back up to my smug grey ones, and flapped his mouth open and closed as if at a loss of words to describe his disgust.

I opened my mouth, ready to inform him of my plan to forget about the spoon, or spear, or whatever it was, when another roar shook our bones.

"Eep!" I squealed in fright and shot back into Loki. I tightly gripped his leather padded arm as we held our breaths.

"Look at what you've done," Loki hissed. "Your squealing has drawn the beast's attention."

"_My_ squealing?" I hissed back in outrage. "What about you? _You're_ the one that screamed like a little girl!"

"I did _not_ scream like a little girl!"

"Fine, if 'not' means did, then sure, you did _not_ scream like a little girl."

"That doesn't even make sense. What would that be, 'I did _did_ scream like a little girl'? There are too many 'did' in that sentence."

"Yeah...well...you have spit on your hand!"

"Is that really the best you can-"

_THUMP_.

_THUMP_.

_THUMP_.

Huge footsteps interrupted our hissed argument.

"SNORF," an equally huge snort of air ruffled my hair. Loki and I locked eyes and clung closer to each other. Well, _I_ clung closer to Loki while he continued to stand stiffly, but he certainly made no effort to pry me away.

We stood as still as frozen statues, neither one of us willing to risk attracting the green beast's attention with movement. The stench of old socks, garbage, and boiled egg washed over us with every heavy breath it took. A few strands of renegade hair from my bun tickled my face as the putrid breeze puffed again and again.

Fortunately, the monster seemed to lack the ability to see in dim lighting. After giving a particularly large and sulfuric puff, the beast rumbled away. All seemed good. The monster hadn't noticed us, and had left us a nice, clear escape route.

I wish I could say we forgot about the magical spoon, or spear, or spork, or whatever it was. I wish I could say that we successfully escaped without any complications. Oh, how I wish I could say that I didn't manage to mess up once again. But wishes don't come true. At least, not for me.

"HIC-IC-ic-ic..." My hiccup echoed through the metal passageway.

"RAAAAAWR!"

I screwed my eyes shut and winced.

_THUMP_.

_ THUMP_.

_ THUMP_.

_SCRAEETCH_.

_Fwish_.

_CLANG_.

The wall we were hiding behind was no longer there. The monster had torn it away, and thrown it further than I could see. I didn't care that the metal plates of his armour dug uncomfortably into me, I pulled Loki closer. If all else failed, I could shove Loki in front of the monster and run.

Loki and I turned to face the beast. Bloodshot eyes bored into us. A giant emerald fist the size of my torso whizzed through the air. And then, I wasn't standing any more. I wasn't breathing any more, either. I was flying, soaring through the air. The searing pain in my shoulder as it wrenched reminded me of my shackles and of the hole in my plan to use Loki as a diversion. With a tooth crunching impact, I reunited with sold ground. Again. And again.

I skidded to a halt after my bounced landing, and had the small amount of air left in my lungs knocked out when Loki landed on top of me.

Without a pause, the green monster puffed, huffed, and charged. I wiggled, I squirmed, I kicked, Hell, I even tried to bite. Nothing could dislodge Loki's significant weight from pressing me into the ground. I was trapped, and I was going to die.

My mind ran blank. I gulped. My heart fled to my throat as my stomach retreated to my feet. I ducked my head down and stared at the metal grill flooring. And then, when the thundering stomps of the beast drew close enough to vibrate the floor, I squeezed my eyes shut in a fervent attempt to hide from my death.

My life did not flash before my eyes. No, instead, my brothers' did. Jack's first steps flittered through my brain. Robin's gap toothed grin as mother told him about the tooth fairy. Robin's sobs as Father revealed the true fictitious nature of the fairy. The way Jack's grey eyes sparkled in the sun. The way those same eyes filled with tears after Robin and I convinced him to eat a mud pie. Flashes of memories spun faster than I could pinpoint. From us huddling together on my fluffy bed while Mother's and Father's shouts filled our ears, to happier days of us walking to Mother's job at the factory after school; they all swirled in a violent storm.

The realization that I would never be able to see them again hurt more than my dislocated shoulder. It even hurt more than the fact I had brought this onto myself.

I was the one that didn't follow the rules.

I was the one that chained myself to a stranger.

I was the one that didn't do what had to be done.

I was the one that drew the monster's attention.

And now, I was the one that would hurt my family.

The concequences of my actions had caught up to me, and there was nothing I could do to avoid them.

A shift of Loki's weight gave a small space to breathe, which my burning lungs so dearly screamed for. I took a deep breath, and in my usual sidetracked fashion, vaguely noticed how nice Loki smelled. Almost like incense. I took another deep breath. I would rather die sniffing incense than the boiled socks stuffed with eggs odor being emitted by the monster.

I was jolted back to reality by Loki's voice and a sudden halt in the thundering stomps.

"Hurry!" He hissed into my ear, and rolled off of me. After roughly yanking me to my feet, he continued. "It's distracted by my fake double. Come on, we don't have much time."

Before I could register what was happening, we were already through an empty doorway and into the room that was proudly labelled as the on-ship laboratory. I clutched my left arm, and watched the room spin as Loki began his frantic search for his spork. Or was it a spear? I was in too much pain to really care.

Missing chunks of the outerwall allowed lazy sunlight to filter in, and bathed the room in a warm, golden glow. There was enough light to see everything in the room, from overturned desks to fallen ceiling panels. Despite the clear visibility, I didn't bother to help locate the spoon. I was horrible at finding things, and any helpful attempts would only hold him back.

Loki quickly and effortlessly located the bin of his weapons and my belongings. In less than a minute, he located my backpack and shoved the entire cardboard box into it. Slinging the bag over his left shoulder, Loki snatched his golden spear from beneath a pile of rubble I hadn't noticed.

"Look out!" Loki whirled around and took a step to me, but his warning was too late.

My horrible decision to stand in front of the open doorway while a giant green monster attacked a hologram in the other room was just that; horrible. The fake double of Loki was darting around the other room, and in a blind attempt to destroy Decoy-Loki, the monster had thrown a ball of twisted together metal at it. Seeing as the hologram was not solid, the projectile flew through it, and hit something very solid.

Me.

With a sickly thud, I fell to the floor. I closed my eyes. And then, I entered the concerningly familiar state of unconsciousness.

But I wouldn't complain, because unconsciousness was much better than death.


End file.
